Observational studyJournal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics2022
Comparisons of Four Diet Quality Indexes to Define Single Meal Healthfulness.
Observational study in Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Food-based indices for the assessment of nutritive value and environmental impact of meals and diets: A systematic review.PloS one · 2026Pooled it
- Household Composition May Modify the Association Between Home Cooking and Dietary Diversity Among Japanese Corporate Employees.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Article
- Development of the Ajinomoto Group Nutrient Profiling System for Japanese Meals.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Data-driven development and validation of a nutrient-based score to measure nutritional balance of meals in the Philippines.BMC nutrition · 2024Article
- Who chooses "healthy" meals? An analysis of lunchtime meal quality in a workplace cafeteria.BMC public health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMany dietary indexes exist to evaluate nutrition quality, but few specifically assess the quality of a single meal.
objectiveOur aim was to compare 4 different diet quality indexes in their ability to assess the nutrition quality of single meals.
designThis was a secondary analysis of data from the PACE (Effects of Physical Activity Calorie Expenditure) food labeling study (2015-2017). Data were collected in business cafeterias in North Carolina and included photos of lunch trays before consumption from an adult population and serving sizes of each food item. Additional nutrient analysis was conducted to compile macro- and micronutrient data for each food item, in addition to servings provided from each food group.
main outcome measuresThe main outcome was individual meal nutrition quality. Data from the PACE study were used to calculate the scores of the following diet quality indexes: Healthy Eating Index 2015, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension accordance score, Main Meal Quality Index, and Nutrient Rich Foods Index. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS PERFORMED: To score the meals, algorithms were created in SAS software, version 9.4, to combine individual foods and beverages into meals and calculate scores according to the individual index components. The total scores for each of the indexes were compared using Spearman correlation coefficients.
resultsA total of 8,070 observations or "meals" from 379 participants were scored for this study. The scores for each observation varied by index. The Spearman correlation coefficients between the indexes for the total score for all observations ranged from 0.26 to 0.68. The correlation coefficients did not change equally among the indexes when observations were excluded based on predefined criteria for what constitutes a meal.
conclusionsThere is wide variability in scores of the 4 diet quality indexes analyzed in this study. In addition, the indexes show weak to moderate correlation, indicating that the appropriateness of the index will depend greatly on the study questions and objectives.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.