2020 Volume 78 Issue 6 Pages 254-263
Objective: This study aimed to adapt plant-based dietary indices (PDIs), which have been reported in previous studies, for female university students in Japan and to describe correlations among PDIs, nutritional intake, and body mass index (BMI) in order to use PDIs as basic materials for research on plant-based dietary patterns.
Methods: PDIs, which are composed of a plant-based dietary index (PDI) and healthful and unhealthful plant-based dietary indices (hPDI/uPDI), were calculated using dietary intake data from a validated brief-type self-administered diet history questionnaire (BDHQ) administered to 281 female university students in Japan. Correlations between PDIs and energy, nutritional intake (energy-adjusted value), and BMI were also calculated.
Results: The median BMI (25th and 75th percentile) was 20.0 (18.8, 21.2) kg/m2. Participants with higher hPDI consumed higher amounts of all micronutrients except for cholesterol (ρ = 0.147~0.645, p < 0.050). Participants with higher uPDI scores consumed less energy and nutrients, except for several energy-adjusted macronutrients, such as saturated fat (ρ = −0.718 ~ −0.127, p < 0.050). No significant correlations were observed between the PDIs and BMI.
Conclusions: Participants who scored higher for hPDI had better nutrient intake than others. On the other hand, participants with higher uPDI scores had insufficient energy and had a lower nutritional intake compared to others.
