DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF HEALTHY EATING INDEX FOR ADOLESCENTS (HEIA).

Background:- Healthy Eating Index (HEI) is used to measure dietary quality of Americans. So far no attempt has been made in India to develop such systems in Indian context. Objective:- Development and validation of Healthy Eating Index for Adolescents (HEIA) in Indian context which measures congruity of dietary patterns with previously established ‘Dietary Guidelines for Indians’. Design:- Socio-economic status, 24-hour dietary recall (3 day) and anthropometric data was collected from 478 school children aged 8-15 years. HEIA was developed and validated based on psychometric properties. Results:- HEIA comprised of 10 dietary components. HEIA assessed and scored quality of relative proportion of foods consumed. Religion, nutritional status and dietary habits had significant effect on mean HEIA scores. Mean HEIA scores were positively correlated to mean energy, protein calcium and iron intakes. Multiple-regression analysis revealed 36% of total variation in mean HEIA scores was exerted by calcium, protein, iron, energy intakes and age together. Analysis of the psychometric properties of HEIA showed its components conformed to the dietary guidelines. HEIA uncoupled dietary quality with dietary quantity. Eight of ten components explained 90% of variance in HEIA scores. HEIA was found to be reliable multidimensional tool for measuring diet quality. Conclusion:- HEIA is a simple, valid and reliable tool for measuring dietary quality of school children. General population can be trained to evaluate quality of their own diets using HEIA. It should be used in conjunction with simple behaviour-change communication messages to bring about positive behavioural changes amongst populations.