Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) allows knowing the subject’s feelings in distress and well-being, as well as perception of current and future health. Objective: To assess associations between health-related quality of life, fitness status, and adherence to the Mediterranean diet in Spanish children and adolescents. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in a sample of 305 (47.2% women) children and adolescents aged between 8 and 16 years, in the primary and secondary schools of the province of Ávila (central Spain) (NCT05380674). Subjects were classified according to their quality of life: group 1 (highest quality of life) > group 2 (medium quality of life) > group 3 (lowest quality of life). Results: More participants in group 1 showed higher adherence to Mediterranean diet (70.8%) than other groups (group 2: 55.0%; group 3: 43.4%). It was less likely to find optimal levels of muscle strength as quality of life decreased (OR; 95% CI: group 2: 0.535; 0.303–0.955; and group 3: 0.424; 0.234–0.768). Similar trends were found for speed and agility, but only group 3 showed significant results (OR; 95% CI: group 3: 0.297; 0.162–0.545). Flexibility was also the worst in groups 2 and 3 (OR; 95% CI: G2: 0.403; 0.213–0.762; and group 3: 0.520; 0.282–0.958). Conclusion: High fitness status and adherence to the Mediterranean diet were associated with improved health-related quality of life in schoolchildren of central Spain.

Background: This cross-sectional study compares eating behaviors before and during the COVID-19 lockdown that was decreed in Spain on 14 March 2020. Methods: The sample was made up of 1177 people aged 18 years or older who responded during the month of June 2020 to a questionnaire designed in Google Forms. Information was collected on the frequency of food consumption before and during lockdown. A dietary inflammatory index (DII) was created with positive or negative values depending on the inflammatory potential of different foods, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, meat, fish, eggs, yogurt, milk, cheese, industrial pastries, salty snacks, fast food, and soft drinks. The scores from before and during confinement were compared. Results: Most of the people in the sample maintained their eating pattern during lockdown. Among those who changed, the majority increased their consumption of healthy foods, which resulted in a decrease in the inflammatory potential of the diet; this was particularly the case in men. Conclusions: The improvement in the quality of the diet contributed to a significant decrease in DII during confinement, especially in men.

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Background: This cross-sectional study compares eating behaviours before and during the COVID-19 lockdown that was decreed in Spain on March 14, 2020. Methods: The sample was made up of 1,177 people aged 18 years or older who responded during the month of June to a questionnaire designed in Google Forms. Information was collected on the frequency of food consumption before and during lockdown. A dietary inflammatory index (DII) was created with positive or negative values ​​depending on the inflammatory potential of different foods, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, meat, fish, eggs, yogurt, milk, cheese, industrial pastries, salty snacks, fast food, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. The scores from before and during confinement were compared. Results: Most of the people in the sample maintained their eating pattern during lockdown. Among those who changed, the majority increased their consumption of healthy foods, which resulted in a decrease in the inflammatory potential of the diet; this was particularly the case in men. Conclusions: The improvement in the quality of the diet contributed to a significant decrease in DII during confinement, especially in men.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII®) and cardiovascular health indicators in children. Methods: The sample consisted of 365 schoolchildren aged 8 to 12 from the Region of Madrid. Anthropometric and hemodynamic measurements were collected. Variables relating to habits and lifestyles, parental level of education, and data on their diet, through three 24 h food recall surveys, were also collected. The diet quality indicators considered are the DII based on 25 nutrients and the KIDMED index. Results: Children with a more pro-inflammatory diet came from families with lower levels of parental education (p < 0.05). Predictive models show that in the group with a more pro-inflammatory diet (>P50), the likelihood of developing hypertension in childhood is 2.1 times higher (OR = 2.085 (1.107–3.927)) and they have more than twice the risk of developing obesity (OR = 2.3) or developing obesity and hypertension simultaneously (OR = 1.290 (1.316–3.985)). Furthermore, predictive models showed that the children with a pro-inflammatory diet (>P50) had higher values for BFM% (β = 1.957; p = 0.026) and BMI (β = 0.015; p = 0.012) than children with a lower inflammatory diet (<P50). Conclusions: Higher values on the DII are related to poorer nutritional status and cardiovascular health in childhood. Thus, a pro-inflammatory diet is also associated with a lower socio-economic level and poorer diet quality.