Examination of the five comparable component scores of the diet quality indexes HEI-2005 and RC-DQI using a nationally representative sample of 2-18 year old children: NHANES 2003-2006

Obesity has been associated with low diet quality and the suboptimal intake of food groups and nutrients. two composite diet quality measurement tools are appropriate for americans 2-18 years old: the healthy eating index (hei) 2005 and the revised children's diet quality index (rc-dqi). the five components included in both indexes are fruits,vegetables,total grains,whole grains,and milk/dairy. component scores ranged from 0 to 5 or 0 to 10 points with lower scores indicating suboptimal intake. to allow direct comparisons,one component was rescaled by dividing it by 2; then,all components ranged from 0 to 5 points. the aim of this study was to directly compare the scoring results of these five components using dietary data from a nationally representative sample of children (nhanes 2003-2006,n=5,936). correlation coefficients within and between indexes showed less internal consistency in the hei; age- and ethnic-group stratified analyses indicated higher sensitivity of the rc-dqi. hei scoring was likely to dichotomize the population into two groups (those with 0 and those with 5 points),while rc-dqi scores resulted in a larger distribution of scores. the scoring scheme of diet quality indexes for children results in great variation of the outcomes,and researchers must be aware of those effects. © 2013 sibylle kranz and george p. mccabe.