Identification of Major Dietary Patterns in Tabriz Adults

Abstract

Background & Objectives: Dietary patterns reflect diet and nutritional habits of the individuals in a society. Moreover, dietary patterns help identify subjects who are at risk of chronic disease to propose proper dietary guidelines. The present study aimed to identify the prominent dietary patterns among apparently healthy adults in Tabriz, Iran. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 670 males and females, aged 25-50 years, selected with simple random sampling from 4 medical centers of Tabriz city including Sheykh-Al-raees clinic, specialist clinics of Imam Reza hospital, clinic of Alinasab hospital and Bu-Ali clinic (Valiasr area). Food intake was evaluated using a 132-item semi quantitative food frequency questionnaire after collecting participants' demographic data. Finally, major dietary patterns were extracted through the method of factor analysis. Results: Four major identified dietary patterns were Western, healthy, mixed and Azerbaijan traditional dietary patterns among which healthy dietary pattern (28.8%) was the most prominent. The proportion of adherence to the Western, mixed and traditional dietary patterns was 25.7%, 24.8%, 20.6%, respectively. Moreover, it was observed that among males, Western dietary pattern (33.7%) and among women, healthy dietary pattern (32.4%) had the most followers. Conclusion: Despite dominance of the healthy dietary pattern, more than one-quarter of subjects follow the Western dietary pattern which plays an important role in the incidence of chronic diseases.