Adherence to Mediterranean Diet Measured through Medi-Lite Score and Obesity: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

We recently developed and validated a questionnaire to measure adherence to the Mediterranean diet, called Medi-Lite. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of the Medi-Lite adherence score in relation to obesity status. A total of 208 patients who attended the Clinical Nutrition Unit of Careggi University Hospital, Florence, were included in this retrospective analysis. Of them, 126 (45%) had abdominal obesity (110 F; 16 M). The mean adherence score, calculated through the Medi-Lite questionnaire, was 9.5 ± 2.2, with significantly (p < 0.001) lower values in patients with abdominal obesity (8.9 ± 1.9) than those without abdominal obesity (10 ± 2.2). Logistic regression analysis adjusted for age and sex showed that the Medi-Lite score determined significant protection (−28%) against the risk of abdominal obesity for every one-unit increase in the total score (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.63–0.82; p < 0.001). Looking for cut-off values that denote increased risk of having abdominal obesity, we observed that patients who scored ≤9 had a significantly increased risk (OR 3.21, 95% CI 1.91–5.39; p < 0.001). Adherence to the Mediterranean diet assessed through the Medi-Lite score was found to be associated with abdominal obesity. In particular, patients who reported a score of ≤9 had a 3.5-fold times higher risk of having abdominal obesity than those who scored >9.

Obesity and Lifestyle Habits among Kidney Transplant Recipients

“…There was no significant difference between individuals with or without obesity, possibly due to the overall low level of adherence. However, we found a significant inverse correlation between the Medi-Lite score and BMI (R = −0.45; p < 0.025) in participants with obesity, which was very similar to that found by Dinu and colleagues in subjects with overweight/obesity (R = −0.41; p < 0.0001) [ 22 ]. Efforts should be made to improve adherence to the Mediterranean diet among KT recipients.…”

“…We surveyed participants about their adherence to the Mediterranean diet using the validated Medi-Lite questionnaire. The median Medi-Lite score in our cohort was nine, which is three points lower than that found in a sample of nearly 2000 Italian adults by Dinu and colleagues [ 20 ], and one point lower than that found by the same researchers in 280 patients with overweight/obesity [ 22 ], suggesting a lower adherence among KT recipients as compared with the general population. In fact, adequate adherence to the Mediterranean diet was overall low, with less than half of participants scoring more than nine on the Medi-Lite questionnaire.…”

“…The questionnaire is validated for use in the Italian population, and yields a score ranging from 0 (minimum) to 18 (maximum). Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was considered inadequate if the score was ≤9, and adequate if >9 [ 22 , 23 ].…”

The Deficit Schizophrenia Subtype Is Associated with Low Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet: Findings from a Case–Control Study

“…However, they had significantly better adherence to MD, suggesting that the effect of poor diet quality on BMI might appear at the certain threshold. Indeed, it has been shown in non-psychiatric populations that poor adherence to MD affects the development of obesity after crossing the specific cut-off [36]. It is important to note that MD has several properties which might help to maintain appropriate weight.…”

Subclinical Vascular Damage: Current Insights and Future Potential

“…Among the different diets the most studied is the Mediterranean diet. 19,20 Recently, Dinu and collaborators analyzed a large number of meta-analyses that evaluated the effects of several popular diets on weight and cardiometabolic risk factors and concluded that the Mediterranean diet had the strongest and most consistent evidence of efficacy, with no harmful effects. Also for the DASH diet, it was found to be effective in reducing body weight and blood pressure.…”