Carla Roggi

An evaluation of a colour food photography atlas as a tool for quantifying food portion size in epidemiological dietary surveys.

Objective:To test the validity of a colour food photography atlas for quantifying portion size eaten compared with weighed foods.Design:The colour food photography atlas was prepared by cooking, weighing and taking digital photographs of three portion sizes of 434 foods and beverages typical of the Italian diet.Subjects and interventions:In all, 448 male and female volunteers aged 6–60 y from a wide variety of social backgrounds completed 9075 assessments of food portions eaten at lunch and dinner in relation to a set of colour food photographs during 8 weeks of investigation. The amounts of foods eaten by individuals in five different cafeterias in Pavia, Northern Italy, were weighed by trained investigators at the time of serving and, within 5–10 min of the end of the meal, each subject was asked to quantify all foods consumed with reference to one of the three food photographs or in terms of virtual portions among those shown in the photographs.Results:Multiple regression analysis shows that weights of portion sizes chosen from the set of photographs are significantly associated (P<0.05) to weights of eaten portions (β=0.81; R2=0.70) and are independent of age, gender and BMI. The differences between mean weights of the portions chosen by individuals from photographs and mean weights of eaten foods are significant for all food categories (P<0.05), except for bread. However, because of the very large number of observations, the mean differences are very small (range: from +23.2 g (+11.2%) for first courses to −1.3 g (−2.7%) for bread). Bland–Altman plots show that first courses limits of agreement are wide because the dispersion is increasing while weights are rising.Conclusions:The use of a series of three photographs and virtual portion sizes being associated with relatively small errors, our findings support the validity of using this colour food photography atlas as a tool for quantifying food portion size in epidemiological dietary surveys on different age groups of Italian subjects.

Reliability of a dietary questionnaire on food habits, eating behaviour and nutritional knowledge of adolescents

Objective: To develop a dietary questionnaire on food habits, eating behaviour and nutrition knowledge of adolescents and to examine its reliability.Design: A cross-sectional baseline survey. The questionnaire was self-administered to study participants twice with 7 days between each administration.Setting: A school community in Pavia, Italy.Subjects: A group of students (n=72, aged 14–17 y, both sexes) studying in a secondary school in the second year of the course were invited to compile a dietary questionnaire during school time. Informed written consent was obtained from each subject and their parents. Subjects were initially recruited for a nutrition intervention; recruitment was opportunistic and school based.Statistical analyses: Reliability was assessed using the Cronbachs alpha and the Pearson correlation coefficients.Results: Cronbachs alpha ranges from a minimum of 0.55 to a maximum of 0.75, indicating that only two sections have a poor internal consistency. The Pearson correlation coefficients range from a minimum of 0.78 to a maximum of 0.88, indicating a very good temporal stability of the questionnaire. All the Pearson correlation coefficients are statistically significant with P<0.01.Conclusions: The present questionnaire has the potential to measure the effects of nutrition interventions on adolescents because of its stability in making comparisons over time. The instruments is low in cost and easy to administer and analyse; moreover, it could be modified appropriately to fit the needs of other populations as well.

Eating Habits and Behaviors, Physical Activity, Nutritional and Food Safety Knowledge and Beliefs in an Adolescent Italian Population

Objective: The present study evaluates eating habits and behaviors, and nutritional and food safety knowledge of a group of Italian adolescents. Design: A dietary questionnaire previously constructed and tested was self-administered during school time. Each section was evaluated using a separate score. Setting: The study was carried out as a part of a nutritional surveillance project in the Aosta Valley Region, Northern Italy. Subjects: Five hundred and thirty-two adolescent subjects, aged 15.4 ± 0.7 years, attending the second year of secondary schools participated in the study. Measures: We evaluated eating habits, physical activity, meaning of healthy and unhealthy dietary habits and food, self-efficacy, barriers affecting healthy food choices, nutritional and food safety, weight, height, Body Mass Index (BMI). Results: Only 37.0% of the sample have satisfactory eating habits; 18.5% have a very active lifestyle; only 8.6% have quite good nutritional knowledge, 2.4% have satisfactory food safety knowledge, although 43.7% have good hygiene practices. Conclusions: The results point out unhealthy behaviors influencing adolescents’ eating habits and suggest which of these must be considered in order to develop tailored nutrition interventions, improving adolescents’ consciousness aimed at adopting a healthy lifestyle.

Dietary exposure estimates of twenty-one trace elements from a Total Diet Study carried out in Pavia, Northern Italy

The significant role of trace elements in human health is well documented. Trace elements are those compounds that need to be present in the human diet to maintain normal physiological functions. However, some microelements may become harmful at high levels of exposure, or, on the other hand, may give rise to malnutrition, when their exposure is too low. The aim of the present study was to provide a reliable estimate of the dietary exposure of twenty-one trace elements in a Northern Italian area. For this purpose, trace element analyses were undertaken on total diet samples collected from a university cafeteria in Pavia, Northern Italy. The average daily exposure for the adult people was calculated on the basis of food consumption frequency, portion size and trace element levels in foodstuffs. The mean exposure values satisfy the Italian RDA for all the essential trace elements, except for Fe exposure in females, and are well below the Provisional Tolerable Daily Intake for all the toxic compounds, showing that the probability of dietary exposure to health risks is overall small. As far as Fe exposure is concerned, a potential risk of anaemia in the female adult population should be considered, then studies aimed at evaluating the Fe nutritional status of adult Italian women should be addressed. In conclusion, while not excluding the possibility that the daily exposure determined in the present study may not be representative of the population as a whole, this study provides a good estimate of the Italian adult consumer exposure to twenty-one trace elements.

Urinary 1-hydroxypyrene as a marker of exposure to pyrene: an epidemiological survey on a general population group.

Urinary levels of 1-hydroxypyrene in a general adult population group are studied. Experimental data are not normally distributed; statistical analysis required a base 10 logarithmic transformation of data. The concentrations of urinary 1-hydroxypyrene measured were expressed as microgram g-1 urinary creatinine and are comparable with those reported by other authors, both for smoker and non-smoker subgroups. Multiple regression analysis shows that, for smokers, the number of cigarettes smoked per day and the body mass index (BMI) significantly influence the levels of urinary 1-hydroxypyrene expressed as microgram g-1 urinary creatinine, whereas no personal or behavioural variable (age, sex, alcohol consumption, dietary intake of pyrene, BMI) modified the 1-hydroxypyrene levels for non-smokers.

Validation of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire parent version (DEBQ-P) in the Italian population: a screening tool to detect differences in eating behaviour among obese, overweight and normal-weight preadolescents

Objective: To validate the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire Parent version (DEBQ-P) in the Italian population and investigate the differences in eating behaviour among Italian normal-weight, overweight and obese preadolescents.Design: A cross-sectional validation study. Participants were measured and the approved translation of the questionnaire was administered to their parents.Setting: Three school communities in the province of Bergamo, Northern Italy.Subjects: A total of 312 preadolescents (mean age 12.9 y; s.d. 0.8, both sexes) from three secondary schools of the province of Bergamo, Northern Italy, and their parents were invited to participate to the study. Informed written consent was obtained from each subject and their parents. Students were measured and their parents filled in the approved translation of the DEBQ-P. Recruitment was opportunistic and school based.Results: Factor and internal consistency analysis confirmed the factor structure of the DEBQ-P and the high internal consistency of its three scales. Variance analysis showed that eating behaviour of Italian normal-weight, overweight and obese preadolescents differs significantly only in regards to the ‘restrained eating’ scale (F 19.29, P<0.001), with overweight and obese scoring higher.Conclusions: The DEBQ-P can be used for screening projects regarding eating behaviour in the Italian population. The association between restrained eating and weight status was confirmed for both sexes, but the relationship between external eating and emotional overeating and overweight requires further exploration.

Trace element reference values in tissues from inhabitants of the European community. IV. Influence of dietary factors

Abstract In order to assess the importance of beverages as a dietary factor in influencing the establishment of trace element reference values in body fluids and tissues of the general population, elements were determined in table wines, mineral waters, beers, ready-to-drink-infusion of tea and instant coffees consumed by Italians. The study was carried out by a combination of spectrochemical and nuclear techniques, including graphite furnace and hydride generation atomic absorption spectroscopy (GF-AAS, HG-AAS), inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) as well as neutron activation analysis (NAA). In the absence of certified reference materials the control of the accuracy was performed by determining each element with at least two independent analytical techniques. The results were considered satisfactory for differences lower than 10%, 20% and 30% for analyte concentration > 100 μg l−1, in the range 10–100 μg 1−1 and

Nutrition knowledge and other determinants of food intake and lifestyle habits in children and young adolescents living in a rural area of Sicily, South Italy.

OBJECTIVE The study aimed to test the reliability of a nutrition questionnaire and to assess potential associations between nutrition knowledge, food consumption and lifestyle behaviours, controlling for sociodemographic factors. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SETTING Comprehensive school in the municipality of Butera, a rural area of Sicily, South Italy. SUBJECTS The survey was conducted between March and May 2010 on 445 students (4-16 years). RESULTS All constructs of the questionnaire had statistically significant Cronbachs a and Pearsons correlation coefficients, showing good internal consistency and temporal stability. After controlling for covariates, nutrition knowledge was positively associated with pasta/rice, fish, vegetable and fruit intakes, and negatively with sweets, snacks, fried foods and sugary drinks consumption. Moreover, students whose parents were in the highest educational and occupational categories reported eating significantly more fruits and vegetables and less meat, sweets, snacks, fried foods and sugary drinks. Students with higher nutrition knowledge scores were less likely to have two or more snacks daily and to spend more than 3 h in sedentary activities daily (OR=0.89, 95% CI 0.83, 0.97 and OR=0.92, 95% CI 0.86, 0.99, respectively). High parental education was associated with less frequent snacking and more frequent weekly physical activity, compared with lower categories, whereas high parental occupational category was associated with daily breakfast. CONCLUSIONS Improving nutrition knowledge in children and young adolescents may translate into educating them in good dietary habits. Moreover, nutrition intervention programmes should also involve parents to improve dietary quality and nutritional habits of the entire family.

Reference values of urinary ethylenethiourea in four regions of Italy (multicentric study)

The results of a study in which urinary ethylenethiourea (ETU) was assayed in the general population (167 subjects) of four Regions of Italy (Veneto, Lombardy, Piedmont and Trentino Alto Adige) are reported. The results are compared with those in a population of 97 subjects from Rovescala, a hillside wine-producing town a few kilometers from Pavia, where ethylenebisdithiocarbamates are sprayed by helicopter. It was found that an average of 24% of the populations of the four regions, taken together, had urinary ETU levels above detection limits (1.0 microgram 1(-1)) as compared to 37% of the population of Rovescala. The ranges of concentration were 0.8-8.3 micrograms 1(-1) for the four regions and 0.9-61.4 micrograms 1(-1) for Rovescala. Statistically significant variables for urinary ETU levels were smoking and wine drinking.

Urinary excretion of ethylenethiourea in five volunteers on a controlled diet (multicentric study)

Urinary excretion of ethylenethiourea (ETU) was monitored for 8 days in a group of five male non-smoker volunteers on a diet, the items of which were assayed for ETU and carbon sulphide. Urinary excretion of ETU reflected the consumption of wine, fruit and vegetables. Urinary ETU concentrations ranged from 0.6 to 6.7 micrograms/g creatinine. ETU concentrations in the food eaten by the volunteers were generally below the detection limit whereas in wine 8.8 micrograms/l ETU was detected. Evolution of carbon sulphide by food samples ranged from 0.03 to 0.17 mg/kg. Mean (+/- S.D.) daily intake of ETU in wine was 3.5 +/- 0.2% of the acceptable daily intake (ADI): 0.070 +/- 0.004 micrograms/kg body wt. During the 8 days of the study, an average of 48.3% of the ETU ingested in wine was excreted unmodified by the kidneys. Twenty-four hour urinary excretion of ETU was significantly correlated with daily intake of ETU (r = 0.768) and CS2 evolved by the daily food items (r = 0.414).