Objective: To develop and assess the validity of the Dietary Quality Score (DQS) and investigate the association with cardiovascular risk factors. Design: Cross-sectional population-based study. Setting: Copenhagen County, Glostrup, Denmark. Subjects: A random sample of 12 934 men and women aged 30-60 years were invited to a health examination. A total of 6542 participants were included in the statistical analysis. Methods: The DQS was developed using eight questions from a 48-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and validated using a 198-item FFQ. Associations between the DQS and fasting serum lipids, homocysteine, blood pressure and the absolute risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) were explored. Results: A higher DQS was shown to be associated with higher dietary quality in general, including a low intake of fat, especially saturated fat; a high intake of fibre; various vitamins and minerals; and fruit, fish, vegetables and whole-grain products. A higher score according to the DQS was significantly negatively associated with total cholesterol (P ¼ 0.0031), triglyceride (P ¼ 0.0406), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (P ¼ 0.0071), homocysteine (Po0.0001) and the absolute risk of IHD (Po0.0001), adjusted for sex, age, smoking habits and physical activity level. Conclusions: The DQS is a simple, valid and quick tool to make a rough classification of individuals into groups with high, average and low dietary quality. The DQS is negatively associated with serum lipids, homocysteine and the absolute risk of IHD.

OBJECTIVE -To examine the relationship between daily glycemic index, daily glycemic load, simple sugars, dietary fiber, and the prevalence of a measure of insulin resistance in 30-to 60-year-old nondiabetic Danish men and women.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -The Inter99 study is a nonpharmacological intervention study. We used baseline data and examined cross-sectional associations between carbohydrate-related dietary factors and an estimate of insulin resistance in 5,675 subjects at 30 -60 years. The dietary intake was estimated from a self-administered food frequency questionnaire, and insulin resistance was estimated using the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Multiple regressions were performed with HOMA-IR as the dependent variable and carbohydrate-related factors as explanatory variables. All models were adjusted for age, sex, smoking, physical activity, total energy intake, BMI, and waist circumference.RESULTS -Intake of lactose was positively associated with HOMA-IR (P Ͻ 0.0001), whereas daily glycemic load and intake of glucose, fructose, dietary fiber, total carbohydrate, fruit, and vegetables were inversely associated with HOMA-IR (P Ͻ 0.05). Intake of dietary fiber explained the associations with daily glycemic load and total carbohydrate and attenuated the association with fruit and vegetables. No significant associations were observed for daily glycemic index or sucrose.CONCLUSIONS -Habitual intake of diets with a high glycemic index and high glycemic load or diets with a high content of total carbohydrate including simple sugars was not associated with the probability of having insulin resistance. Furthermore, intake of dietary fiber was inversely associated with the probability of having insulin resistance.

Aim: This article aims to describe the study design, including descriptive statistics on changes in response rates, characteristics associated with response and response mode distribution, in the Danish National Health Survey (DNHS) in 2010, 2013 and 2017. Methods: Each survey was based on five regional stratified random samples and one national random sample drawn from the Danish Civil Registration System. The subsamples were mutually exclusive. Around 300,000 individuals (aged ⩾16 years) were invited to participate in each survey using a mixed-mode approach (paper/web). A questionnaire with a minimum of 52 questions was used in all subsamples. In 2010 and 2013, invitations were sent via the regular postal service, whereas a secure electronical mail service was used to invite the majority (around 90%) in 2017. Weights accounted for survey design and non-response. Results: Participation decreased from 59.5% in 2010 to 54.0% in 2013 after which it increased to 58.7% in 2017. The proportion answering the web questionnaire increased from 31.0% to 77.4% between 2013 and 2017 and varied from 73.8% to 79.7% between the subsamples in 2017. Overall, the response rate was low among young men and old women and among individuals who were unmarried, had low sociodemographic status, were from ethnic minority backgrounds or were living in the eastern part of Denmark. Conclusions: The survey mode, response mode distribution as well as response rate have changed over time. Weights to handle non-response can be applied to accommodate possible problems in generalising the results. However, efforts should continuously be made to ensure that response is missing at random.