Specifications for the DQI-R program for age 18 and older

Programmer: Dan Blanchette Date: June 2, 1998

Comments:
Revise the Diet Quality Index originally created by Ruth Patterson and colleagues to be more compatible with the most recent dietary recommendations for Americans. Several important changes were made with this revision. First, protein as a component was dropped. Second, three new components were added and fruits were separated from vegetables for a total of 10 components as opposed to 8. They include:
    1) diet diversity
    2) moderation (discretionary fat, added sugar, sodium, and alcohol)
    3) Diet Quality from grains
    4) Diet Quality from fruits
    5) Diet Quality from vegetables and soy
    6) cholesterol intake
    7) % AI calcium
    8) % energy from fat
    9) % energy from saturated fat
    10) % of the RDA for iron.
Third, each component contributes 10 pts to the total score and the score now ranges from 0-100%. A high Diet Quality Score indicates a healthier diet.

title 'CSFII 1996 Food Pyramid data: Day1 and 2-Day averages';
title2 'Ages 18 and over, normalized';

Use data: /usda/csf96/docs/foodcode.asc and /usda/csf96/data/csf9602(rt32).
The ASCII file foodcode.asc is a slightly modified ASCII version of foodcode.txt to be SAS readable. It provided the food description text (fooddesc) for each food code. Certain food codes were selected and keywords were searched for in the food description in order to assign food codes to one of the 7 grain subcategories. The data set csf9602(rt32) provided the number of servings from each food group consumed per food code by each consumer.

Diet Diversity Component [aka. Diet Variety (DV)]:
A Dietary Diversity (DD) component was developed to reflect differences in consumption across 22 broad food group categories:
   -- 7 grain subcategories (Whole grain bread, Non-whole grain bread, Pasta, Rice, Whole grain cereal, Non-whole grain cereal, Quick Bread)
   -- 7 vegetable subcategories (Dark green, deep yellow, legume/soy, potato, starchy, tomato, other)
   -- 6 dairy/meat subcategories (milk/yogurt, cheese, meat/organ/franks, poultry, fish, egg)
   -- 2 fruit subcategories (citrus/melon/berries, other)
To be counted as a "consumer" for any of the 22 food group categories, a consumer at least needed to consume 2 servings, as defined by Food Guide Pyramid criteria, at any time over the two-day survey period (any time on day 1 for the day 1 total, any time over the course of day 1 and day 2 for the 2-day average). This component does reflect the inclusion of mixed dish ingredients. This is made possible through the use of the Pyramid Servings data base [servdb.dat/csf9602(rt32)], which was used in the other part of the DQI-R. With the exception of the expanded grains categories, the Pyramid Servings data base provides a daily estimate of servings of each food group used in the creation of the DD. The number of grain categories were expanded from 2 to 7 to reflect the importance of plant-based foods have in the number of servings of grain products recommended by the Food Guide Pyramid. Some food groups were combined: legumes and soy; meat from beef, pork, lamb and meat from organ meats and meat from franks and luncheon meats; milk and yogurt.

The total Diet Diversity (Variety) score is on a 10-point scale. It is created from the addition of the following scores: Total diet variety score for grains, Total diet variety score for vegetables, Total diet variety score for dairy/meat, Total diet variety score for fruits. Each of these 4 components is a score of the number of food group subcategories that were consumed. Each component can have a maximum value of 2.5. For example, the food group grains has 7 subcategories. If all 7 subcategories were consumed then the score would be 2.5. Food group servings were summed over the course of a day for the same food code. For example, if 1/4 serving of milk was consumed 2 times in a day then the consumer would get credit for 2 servings (provided that the food code for milk was exactly the same).

Use data: /usda/csf96/data/csf9603 (record type 42 from USDA)
Day 1 total, and 2-day average intake for
Grains, fruits, vegetables and added sugar variables:
Grains (grains1 grains2),
Fruits (fruit1 fruit2),
Vegetables (veges1 veges2),
Alcohol (alcnum1 alcnum2),
Discretionary Fat (dfat1 dfat2), and
Added Sugar (asugar1 asugar2).

We used the Food Guide pyramid recommendations for the minimum number
of servings which varies by energy level (row 1) but had to create categories
for energy levels (row 2). They are as follows:

We then created a % of minimum variable. To create the grain, vegetable, and fruit score the % of minimum variable was divided by 10 and rounded to the nearest 100ths decimal place. Upper limit was capped at 10.
*A % of maximum variable was created for added sugar similar to the above but since it is part of the moderation component it was scored as follows:
<100% of maximum for added sugar =2.5 pts
100-150% of maximum for added sugar =1.5 pts
150-200% of maximum for added sugar =1.0 pts
>200% of maximum for added sugar =0 pts

Alcohol- the Dietary Guidelines for Americans provides the recommendation for alcohol intakes of one drink/day for women and 2 drinks/day for men for individuals greater than 21 years of age. We used this guideline to create a % of the recommendation for alcohol variable as part of the moderation component except that the age used was 18 in place of 21. The variable was scored as follows:
<100% of recommendation for alcohol =2.5 pts
100-150% of recommendation for alcohol=1.5 pts
150-200% of recommendation for alcohol=1.0 pts
>200% of recommendation for alcohol =0 pts

Discretionary Fat- this variable which has just recently been created by USDA is derived from the recipe and may be greater than the total amount of fat in the nutrient profile for that food. It represents all excess fat from the five major food groups beyond amounts that would be consumed if only the lowest fat forms were eaten, and fats added to foods in preparation or at the table, including cream, butter, margarine, regular or low-fat cream cheese, oil, lard, meat drippings, cocoa, and chocolate. We used the absolute number of grams to categorize and score this variable as part of the moderation score. The categories and score are as follows:
<25 gms discretionary fat =2.5 pts
25-50 gms discretionary fat =1.5 pts
50-75 gms discretionary fat =1.0 pts
>75 gms discretionary fat =0 pts

Use data: /usda/csf96/data/csf9633(equivalent to rt40) for Day 1 total
and 2-Day average of:
Sodium (sodium1 sodium2),
Calcium (calc1 calc2)
Total fat (fat1 fat2)
Saturated Fat (satf1 satf2)
Cholesterol (chol1 chol2)
%RDA of Iron (rdairon1 rdairon2)

Percent AI Calcium:
This is a new variable based on the 1997 NAS calcium
recommendations for ages 4 to 99.
     4-18:(calcium mg /1300)*100
   19-50: (calcium mg /1000)*100
   51-99: (calcium mg /1200)*100

AI Calcium score:
10 point score of Percent AI Calcium. Divide Percent AI Calcium by 10 and
round to the nearest 100ths decimal place.
Cap upper limit at 10 points.

Percent RDA Iron Score:
10 point score of Percent RDA Iron. Divide Percent RDA Iron and
the nearest 100ths decimal place.
Cap upper limit at 10 points.

Percent energy from fat and saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium
were categories as before, they are as follows:
<30 % total energy from fat = 10 pts
30-40% total energy from fat = 5 pts
>40% total energy from fat = 0 pts

<10 % total energy from saturated fat = 10 pts
10-13% total energy from saturated fat = 5 pts
>13% total energy from saturated fat = 0 pts

<300 mg cholesterol = 10 pts
300-400 mg cholesterol = 5 pts
>400 mg cholesterol = 0 pts

Sodium is now part of the moderation component and contributes only 25% of 10 pts. It is categorized and scored as follows:
<2400 mg sodium = 2.5 pts
2400-3400 mg sodium = 1.5 pts
>3400 mg sodium = 0 pts

The Moderation Score is on a 10-point scale. It is created from the addition of the following scores:
Moderation of Added Sugar, Moderation of Alcohol, Moderation of Sodium, and Moderation of Discretionary Fat.

The Diet Quality Index (Revised) Score is on a 100-point scale. It is created from the addition of the following ten scores: Energy from fat score, Energy from saturated fat score, cholesterol score, DQI total grains score, DQI total fruits score, DQI total vegetables and soy score, % AI calcium score, % RDA iron score, Diet Variety (weighted) score, Moderation score.