Sílvia Pinhão

Attitudes toward genetic testing and personalised nutrition in a representative sample of European consumers

Negative consumer opinion poses a potential barrier to the application of nutrigenomic intervention. The present study has aimed to determine attitudes toward genetic testing and personalised nutrition among the European public. An omnibus opinion survey of a representative sample aged 14-55+ years (n 5967) took place in France, Italy, Great Britain, Portugal, Poland and Germany during June 2005 as part of the Lipgene project. A majority of respondents (66 %) reported that they would be willing to undergo genetic testing and 27 % to follow a personalised diet. Individuals who indicated a willingness to have a genetic test for the personalising of their diets were more likely to report a history of high blood cholesterol levels, central obesity and/or high levels of stress than those who would have a test only for general interest. Those who indicated that they would not have a genetic test were more likely to be male and less likely to report having central obesity. Individuals with a history of high blood cholesterol were less likely than those who did not to worry if intervention foods contained GM ingredients. Individuals who were aware that they had health problems associated with the metabolic syndrome appeared particularly favourable toward nutrigenomic intervention. These findings are encouraging for the future application of personalised nutrition provided that policies are put in place to address public concern about how genetic information is used and held.

Eating behaviour among undergraduate students. Comparing nutrition students with other courses

Our main aim was to compare eating behaviour between Portuguese undergraduate nutrition students and students attending other courses. Several eating behaviour dimensions were compared between 154 nutrition students and 263 students from other areas. Emotional and external eating were assessed by the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, dietary restraint was measured using the flexible and rigid control of eating behaviour subscales, binge eating was measured using the Binge Eating Scale, and eating self-efficacy using the General Eating Self-Efficacy Scale. Higher levels of flexible and rigid control were found in nutrition students from both sexes when compared to students from other courses. Female nutrition students also presented higher binge eating levels than their colleagues from other courses. To our knowledge no other work has previously assessed all eating behaviour dimensions considered in the current study among nutrition students. Besides the results by themselves, the data obtained from this study provide several clues to further studies to be developed regarding the still rarely approached issue of eating behaviour among nutrition students.

General and abdominal adiposity in a representative sample of Portuguese adults: dependency of measures and socio-demographic factors' influence.

The aims of this study were: (i) to estimate the dependency between BMI and waist:height ratio (WHtR) as measures of general and abdominal adiposity, and (ii) to evaluate the influence of socio-demographic factors on both measures and on their dependency in risk classification. Data from a cross-sectional study conducted in 2009 among a representative sample of 3529 Portuguese adults were used. Height, weight and waist were measured and socio-demographic data (sex, age, education level, occupational status, marital status, region of residence) were obtained. Using logistic regression, crude and adjusted OR for high general (BMI≥25·0 kg/m²) and abdominal (WHtR≥0·5) adiposity, and for incompatible classification between them, were calculated. Above half (50·8%) of the respondents had high BMI and 42·1% had high WHtR, and the rates were higher in men than in women. There was an inverse association between education level and both adiposity measures. The lowest prevalence of high general and abdominal adiposity was observed in students and singles, whereas the highest was found in retired, widowed and respondents from Azores, Madeira and Alentejo. Nearly a quarter of respondents (24·0%) were incompatibly classified by BMI and WHtR, with higher prevalence in men than in women and in low- than in high-educated people. Future surveys should focus on developing at least sex-specific cut-offs for both measures. Implementation of effective strategies for preventing and reducing high adiposity levels in Portugal should be directed primarily to men, older, low-educated individuals, as well as those living in the islands and poor regions of the country.

Dietary habits and the metabolic syndrome in middle-aged Europeans

The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions (central obesity, elevated blood pressure, abnormal lipid profile and insulin resistance) associated with increased risk of developing CHD and/or diabetes. Metabolic syndrome may be dietary related. The aim of the present analysis has been to explore associations between dietary habits, body fat distribution and patterns in the reporting of conditions related to metabolic syndrome in European consumers. Data were collected from a representative sample aged ‡ 40 years by survey (n 1722) in Great Britain (n 1182) and Portugal (n 540) as part of the LIPGENE project. Dietary habits for major food groups were assessed using a short FFQ. Anthropometric measures were BMI and waist circumference (WC). FFQ data were factor analysed (maximum likelihood extraction, promax rotation; Kaiser normalised) and self-reported conditions associated with metabolic syndrome (high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, mid-waist obesity, high or low blood sugar) underwent latent class analysis Mplusg version 4 software. Based on the factor analysis of FFQ, three clusters of dietary habits (Table 1) emerged that were characterised by: first, frequent alcohol consumption and infrequent intake of fruit and vegetables and other food groups (factor 1); second, infrequent alcohol consumption, but frequent intake of high-fat-containing foods (factor 2); third, frequent consumption of wine (but infrequent intake of other alcoholic beverages) and consumption of a variety of food groups including fish and low-fat-containing foods (factor 3). Four latent classes emerged from patterns of self-reported metabolic syndrome signs (Table 2). One-way ANOVA tests were conducted for each dietary group in relation to metabolic syndrome classes (Table 1). The metabolic syndrome class were less likely to be in either the unhealthy (P£ 0.001) or alcohol (P= 0.023) dietary group than the overweight class; the metabolic syndrome class were also less likely to be in the unhealthy (P £ 0.001) or alcohol group (P = 0.007) than the healthy class.