Nutrient patterns and their food sources in older persons from France and Quebec: Dietary and lifestyle characteristics

Benjamin Allès (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) , Cécilia Samieri (1, 2, 3) , Simon Lorrain (1, 2, 3) , Marthe-Aline Jutand (1, 2, 3) , Pierre-Hugues Carmichael (4) , Bryna Shatenstein (6, 7) , Pierrette Gaudreau (8, 9) , Hélène Payette (10, 11) , Danielle Laurin (4, 5) , Pascale Barberger-Gateau (1, 2, 3)

1 U 897 Épidémiologie, Santé Publique, Développement
2 UB - Université de Bordeaux
3 Institut de Santé Publique, d'Épidémiologie et de Développement (ISPED)
4 Québec Center of Excellence on Aging
5 Faculty of Pharmacy
6 Département de Nutrition
7 Centre de Recherche, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal - CIUSSS du Centre-est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal
8 Department of Medicine
9 CR CHUM - Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal
10 Research Center on Aging—Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé et des Services Sociaux de l’Est
11 Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

Background: Dietary and nutrient patterns have been linked to health outcomes related to aging. Food intake is influenced by environmental and genetic factors. The aim of the present study was to compare nutrient patterns across two elderly populations sharing a common ancestral cultural background, but living in different environments. Methods: The diet quality, lifestyle and socioeconomic characteristics of participants from the Three-City Study (3C, France, n = 1712) and the Quebec Longitudinal Study on Nutrition and Successful Aging (NuAge, Quebec, Canada, n = 1596) were analyzed. Nutrient patterns and their food sources were identified in the two samples using principal component analysis. Diet quality was compared across sample-specific patterns by describing weekly food intake and associations with the Canadian Healthy Eating Index (C-HEI). Results: Three nutrient patterns were retained in each study: a healthy, a Western and a more traditional pattern. These patterns accounted for 50.1% and 53.5% of the total variance in 3C and NuAge, respectively. Higher education and non-physical occupations over lifetime were associated with healthy patterns in both studies. Other characteristics such as living alone, having a body mass index lower than 25 and being an ex-smoker were associated with the healthy pattern in NuAge. No association between these characteristics and the nutrient patterns was noted in 3C. The healthy and Western patterns from each sample also showed an inverse association with C-HEI. Conclusion: The two healthy patterns showed important similarities: adequate food variety, consumption of healthy foods and associations with common sociodemographic factors. This work highlights that nutrient patterns derived using a posteriori methods may be useful to compare the nutritional quality of the diet of distinct populations.

Mots clés: diet; nutritional quality; aged; nutrition; socioeconomic factors

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Benjamin Allès, Cécilia Samieri, Simon Lorrain, Marthe-Aline Jutand, Pierre-Hugues Carmichael, et al.. Nutrient patterns and their food sources in older persons from France and Quebec: Dietary and lifestyle characteristics. Nutrients, 2016, 8 (4), ⟨10.3390/nu8040225⟩. ⟨hal-01607277⟩