Browsing by Author "Tammi, Rilla"

Added sugar intake has been associated with several adverse health issues, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. However, the knowledge of added sugar intake’s associations with overall diet quality and population subgroups is currently scarce. Our objective was to examine the association of added sugar intake with overall diet quality and population subgroups formed by sociodemographic factors, lifestyle factors, and obesity measures in the Finnish adult population. We also explored whether the association between added sugar intake and overall diet quality differs in the population subgroups. We applied the data from the cross-sectional population-based national FinHealth 2017 Study, and our analytical sample comprised 5094 Finnish adults. Dietary intake was assessed with a validated food frequency questionnaire and added sugar intake was estimated by a newly developed calculation method utilizing food item disaggregation based on the national food composition database Fineli ®. Overall diet quality was assessed by the modified Baltic Sea Diet Score (mBSDS), depicting a healthy Nordic diet. The analyses were established separately for women and men, and associations were calculated by chi-square tests and linear and logistic regression analyses, adjusting for age, education level, smoking, physical activity, BMI, and energy intake. Interactions were investigated with interaction terms and stratified analyses. Added sugar intake was inversely associated with education (P = 0.032 women; P = 0.001 men), smoking (P = 0.002 women; P < 0.0001 men), and physical activity (P < 0.0001) in both sexes. An inverse association was found with BMI in men (P = 0.003). Higher added sugar intake was associated with lower overall diet quality (P < 0.0001) and lower consumption of healthy perceived mBSDS components (P ≤ 0.001). An inverse association was also found with red and processed meat consumption in men (P = 0.011), while there was no association in women. Of the studied population subgroups, a significant interaction was found in physical activity subgroups in men (P = 0.005), the inverse association between added sugar intake and overall diet quality being stronger among active men compared with moderately active and inactive men. In conclusion, our findings suggest that high added sugar intake was associated with lower overall diet quality, lower education, and unhealthy lifestyle habits. The findings of this study can be utilized as background information when establishing new incentives to reduce added sugar intake or maintain a satisfactory intake level in the Finnish adult population. More research, especially longitudinal studies, is needed of added sugar intake’s associations with sociodemographic factors, lifestyle factors, obesity measures, and overall diet quality in the population and population subgroups.