Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T13:27:13.723Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can dietary patterns help us detect diet–disease associations?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2007

Karin B. Michels  and
Matthias B. Schulze
Karin B. Michels*
Affiliation:
Obstetrics and Gynecology Epidemiology Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
Matthias B. Schulze
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Nuthetal, Germany
*
*Corresponding author: Dr Karin B. Michels, fax +1 617 732 4899, email kmichels@rics.bwh.harvard.edu
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The role of diet in promoting health and preventing disease is difficult to elucidate due to its complex network of foods and nutrients. Besides total energy intake, dietary composition is probably the most important discriminator within and between populations. Dietary composition is reflected in dietary patterns, which have recently gained popularity. The present paper reviews the most commonly applied methods to identify dietary patterns, data-driven methods such as factor and cluster analysis, investigator-driven methods such as indices and score, and methods combining the two, namely reduced rank regression. We describe the techniques and their application, discuss strengths and limitations, and discuss the usefulness of dietary pattern analyses.

Keywords

Dietary patternsEpidemiologyFactor analysisPrincipal componentsCluster analysisDietary composition
Type
Research Article
Information
Nutrition Research Reviews , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , December 2005 , pp. 241 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2005

References

Akin, JS, Guilkey, DK, Popkin, BM & Fanelli, MT (1986) Cluster analysis of food consumption patterns of older Americans. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 86, 616–624.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Balder, HF, Virtanen, M, Brants, HA, Krogh, V, Dixon, LB, Tan, F, Mannisto, S, Bellocco, R, Pietinen, P, Wolk, A, Berrino, F, van den Brandt, PA, Hartman, AM & Goldbohm, RA (2003) Common and country-specific dietary patterns in four European cohort studies. Journal of Nutrition 133, 4246–4251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costacou, T, Bamia, C, Ferrari, P, Riboli, E, Trichopoulos, D & Trichopoulou, A (2003) Tracing the Mediterranean diet through principal components and cluster analyses in the Greek population. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 57, 1378–1385.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Everitt, BS, Landau, S & Leese, M (2001) Cluster Analysis. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fogelholm, M, Kujala, U, Kaprio, J & Sarna, S (2000) Predictors of weight change in middle-aged and old men. Obesity Research 8, 367–373.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fung, TT, Schulze, M, Manson, JE, Willett, WC & Hu, FB (2004) Dietary patterns, meat intake, and the risk of type 2 diabetes in women. Archives of Internal Medicine 164, 2235–2240.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glass, TA, Mendes de Leon, CF, Seeman, TE & Berkman, LF (1997) Beyond single indicators of social networks: a LISREL analysis of social ties among the elderly. Social Science and Medicine 44, 1503–1517.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greenwood, DC, Cade, JE, Draper, A, Barrett, JH, Calvert, C & Greenhalgh, A (2000) Seven unique food consumption patterns identified among women in the UK Women's Cohort Study. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 54, 314–320.Google Scholar
Haveman-Nies, A, Tucker, KL, de Groot, LC, Wilson, PW & van Staveren, WA (2001) Evaluation of dietary quality in relationship to nutritional and lifestyle factors in elderly individuals of the US Framingham Heart Study and the European SENECA study. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 55, 870–880.Google Scholar
Heidemann, C, Hoffmann, K, Spranger, J, Klipstein-Grobusch, K, Mohlig, M, Pfeiffer, AF & Boeing, H (2005) A dietary pattern protective against type 2 diabetes in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Potsdam Study cohort. Diabetologia 48, 1126–1134.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoffmann, K, Boeing, H, Boffetta, P, Nagel, G, Orfanos, P, Ferrari, P & Bamia, C (2005) Comparison of two statistical approaches to predict all-cause mortality by dietary patterns in German elderly subjects. British Journal of Nutrition 93, 709–716.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, K, Schulze, MB, Schienkiewitz, A, Nothlings, U & Boeing, H (2004 a) Application of a new statistical method to derive dietary patterns in nutritional epidemiology. American Journal of Epidemiology 159, 935–944.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoffmann, K, Zyriax, BC, Boeing, H & Windler, E (2004 b) A dietary pattern derived to explain biomarker variation is strongly associated with the risk of coronary artery disease. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 80, 633–640.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hu, FB (2002) Dietary pattern analysis: a new direction in nutritional epidemiology. Current Opinion in Lipidology 13, 3–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hu, FB, Manson, JE, Stampfer, MJ, Colditz, G, Liu, S, Solomon, CG & Willett, WC (2001) Diet, lifestyle, and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in women. New England Journal of Medicine 345, 790–797.Google Scholar
Hu, FB, Rimm, E, Smith-Warner, SA, Feskanich, D, Stampfer, MJ, Ascherio, A, Sampson, L & Willett, WC (1999) Reproducibility and validity of dietary patterns assessed with a food-frequency questionnaire. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 69, 243–249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hu, FB, Rimm, EB, Stampfer, MJ, Ascherio, A, Spiegelman, D & Willett, WC (2000) Prospective study of major dietary patterns and risk of coronary heart disease in men. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 72, 912–921.Google Scholar
Huijbregts, PP, Feskens, EJ & Kromhout, D (1995) Dietary patterns and cardiovascular risk factors in elderly men: the Zutphen Elderly Study. International Journal of Epidemiology 24, 313–320.Google Scholar
Jacobson, HN (1986) Pattern analysis in nutrition. Clinical Nutrition 5, 249–253.Google Scholar
Kant, AK, Schatzkin, A, Graubard, BI & Schairer, C, (2000) A prospective study of diet quality and mortality in women. Journal of the American Medical Association 283, 2109–2115.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kant, AK, Schatzkin, A, Harris, TB, Ziegler, RG & Block, G (1993) Dietary diversity and subsequent mortality in the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Epidemiologic Follow-up Study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 57, 434–440.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kant, AK, Schatzkin, A & Ziegler, RG (1995) Dietary diversity and subsequent cause-specific mortality in the NHANES I epidemiologic follow-up study. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 14, 233–238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kennedy, ET, Ohls, J, Carlson, S & Fleming, K (1995) The healthy eating index: design and applications. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 95, 1103–1108.Google Scholar
McCann, SE, Randall, E, Marshall, JR, Graham, S, Zielezny, M & Freudenheim, JL (1994) Diet diversity and risk of colon cancer in western New York. Nutrition and Cancer 21, 133–141.Google Scholar
McCullough, ML, Feskanich, D, Rimm, EB, Giovannucci, EL, Ascherio, A, Variyam, JN, Spiegelman, D, Stampfer, MJ & Willett, WC (2000 a) Adherence to the dietary guidelines for Americans and risk of major chronic disease in men. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 72, 1223–1231.Google Scholar
McCullough, ML, Feskanich, D, Stampfer, MJ, Giovannucci, EL, Rimm, EB, Hu, FB, Spiegelman, D, Hunter, DJ, Colditz, GA & Willett, WC (2002) Diet quality and major chronic disease risk in men and women: moving toward improved dietary guidance. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 76, 1261–1271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCullough, ML, Feskanich, D, Stampfer, MJ, Rosner, BA, Hu, FB, Hunter, DJ, Variyam, JN, Colditz, GA & Willett, WC (2000 b) Adherence to the dietary guidelines for Americans and risk of major chronic disease in women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 72, 1214–1222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manly, FJM (2004) Multivariate Statistical Methods: a Primer 3rd ed. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall/CRC.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manousos, O, Day, NE, Trichopoulos, D, Gerovassilis, F, Tzonou, A & Polychronopoulou, A (1983) Diet and colorectal cancer: a case–control study in Greece. International Journal of Cancer 32, 1–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martinez, ME, Marshall, JR & Sechrest, L (1998) Invited commentary: factor analysis and the search for objectivity. American Journal of Epidemiology 148, 17–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Michels, KB, Welch, AA, Luben, R, Bingham, SA & Day, NE (2005) Measurement of fruit and vegetable consumption with diet questionnaires and implications for analyses and interpretation. American Journal of Epidemiology 161, 987–994.Google Scholar
Michels, KB & Wolk, A (2002) A prospective study of variety of healthy foods and mortality in women. International Journal of Epidemiology 31, 847–854.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Millen, BE, Quatromoni, PA, Copenhafer, DL, Demissie, S, O'Horo, CE & D'Agostino, RB (2001) Validation of a dietary pattern approach for evaluating nutritional risk: the Framingham Nutrition Studies. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 101, 187–194.Google Scholar
Miller, WL, Crabtree, BF & Evans, DK (1992) Exploratory study of the relationship between hypertension and diet diversity among Saba Islanders. Public Health Reports 107, 426–432.Google Scholar
Montonen, J, Knekt, P, Harkanen, T, Jarvinen, R, Heliovaara, M, Aromaa, A & Reunanen, A (2005) Dietary patterns and the incidence of type 2 diabetes. American Journal of Epidemiology 161, 219–227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newby, PK, Muller, D, Hallfrisch, J, Andres, R & Tucker, KL (2004 a) Food patterns measured by factor analysis and anthropometric changes in adults. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 80, 504–513.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newby, PK, Muller, D, Hallfrisch, J, Qiao, N, Andres, R & Tucker, KL (2003) Dietary patterns and changes in body mass index and waist circumference in adults. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 77, 1417–1425.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newby, PK, Muller, D & Tucker, KL (2004 b) Associations of empirically derived eating patterns with plasma lipid biomarkers: a comparison of factor and cluster analysis methods. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 80, 759–767.Google Scholar
Patterson, RE, Haines, PS & Popkin, BM (1994) Diet quality index: capturing a multidimensional behavior. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 94, 57–64.Google Scholar
Randall, E, Marshall, J, Graham, S & Brasure, J (1989) Frequency of food use data and the multidimensionality of diet. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 89, 1070–1075.Google Scholar
Schulze, M, Noethlings, U, Hoffmann, K, Bergmann, MM & Boeing, H (2005) Identification of a food pattern characterized by high-fiber and low-fat food choices associated with low prospective weight change in the EPIC-Potsdam cohort. Journal of Nutrition 135, 1183–1189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schulze, MB, Hoffmann, K, Kroke, A & Boeing, H (2001) Dietary patterns and their association with food and nutrient intake in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Potsdam study. British Journal of Nutrition 85, 363–373.Google Scholar
Schulze, MB, Hoffmann, K, Kroke, A & Boeing, H (2003) Risk of hypertension among women in the EPIC-Potsdam Study: comparison of relative risk estimates for exploratory and hypothesis-oriented dietary patterns. American Journal of Epidemiology 158, 365–373.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schulze, MB, Hoffmann, K & Boeing, H (2004) Risk of hypertension among women in the EPIC-Potsdam Study: comparison of relative risk estimates for exploratory and hypothesis oriented dietary patterns. American Journal of Epidemiology 159, 913–914.Google Scholar
Schulze, MB, Hoffman, K, Manson, JE, Willett, WC, Meigs, JB, Weikert, C, Heidemann, C, Colditz, GA & Hu, FB (2005) Dietary pattern, inflammation, and incidence of type 2 diabetes in women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 82, 675–684.Google Scholar
Schwerin, HS, Stanton, JL, Riley, AM Jr, Schaefer, AE, Leveille, GA, Elliott, JG, Warwick, KM & Brett, BE (1981) Food eating patterns and health: a reexamination of the Ten-State and HANES I surveys. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 34, 568–580.Google Scholar
Slattery, ML, Boucher, KM, Caan, BJ, Potter, JD & Ma, KN (1998) Eating patterns and risk of colon cancer. American Journal of Epidemiology 148, 4–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slattery, ML, Edwards, SL, Boucher, KM, Anderson, K & Caan, BJ (1999) Lifestyle and colon cancer: an assessment of factors associated with risk. American Journal of Epidemiology 150, 869–877.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stampfer, MJ, Hu, FB, Manson, JE, Rimm, EB & Willett, WC (2000) Primary prevention of coronary heart disease in women through diet and lifestyle. New England Journal of Medicine 343, 16–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Togo, P, Osler, M, Sorensen, TI & Heitmann, BL (2004) A longitudinal study of food intake patterns and obesity in adult Danish men and women. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 28, 583–593.Google Scholar
Trichopoulou, A, Costacou, T, Bamia, C, Trichopoulos, D (2003) Adherence to a Mediterranean diet and survival in a Greek population. New England Journal of Medicine 348, 2599–2608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trichopoulos, D & Lagiou, P (2001) Dietary patterns and mortality. British Journal of Nutrition 85, 133–134.Google Scholar
Tucker, KL, Dallal, GE & Rush, D (1992) Dietary patterns of elderly Boston-area residents defined by cluster analysis. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 92, 1487–1491.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Dam, RM, Rimm, EB, Willett, WC, Stampfer, MJ & Hu, FB (2002) Dietary patterns and risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus in US, men. Annals of Internal Medicine 136, 201–209.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weikert, C, Hoffmann, K, Dierkes, J, Zyriax, BC, Klipstein-Grobusch, K, Schulze, MB, Jung, R, Windler, E & Boeing, H (2005) A homocysteine metabolism-related dietary pattern and the risk of coronary heart disease in two independent German study populations. Journal of Nutrition 135, 1981–1988.Google Scholar
Wirfält, E, Hedblad, B, Gullberg, B, Mattisson, I, Andren, C, Rosander, U, Janzon, L & Berglund, G (2001) Food patterns and components of the metabolic syndrome in men and women: a cross-sectional study within the Malmo Diet and Cancer cohort. American Journal of Epidemiology 154, 1150–1159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wirfält, E, Mattisson, I, Gullberg, B & Berglund, G (2000) Food patterns defined by cluster analysis and their utility as dietary exposure variables: a report from the Malmo Diet and Cancer Study. Public Health Nutrition 3, 159–173.Google Scholar