Indices of relative weight and obesity.

Analyses are reported on the correlation with height and with subcutaneous fat thickness of relative weight expressed as per cent of average weight at given height, and of the ratios weight/height, weight/height squared, and the ponderal index (cube root of weight divided by height) in 7424 ‘healthy’ men in 12 cohorts in five countries. Analyses are also reported on the relationship of those indicators of relative weight to body density in 180 young men and in 248 men aged 49–59. Judged by the criteria of correlation with height (lowest is best) and to measures of body fatness (highest is best), the ponderal index is the poorest of the relative weight indices studied.

Cardiovascular risk factors predict survival in middle-aged men during 50 years.

Objectives: We aimed at studying the expectancy of life in middle-aged men as a function of several personal characteristics and risk factors.

Material And Methods: A sample of 1712 Italian men aged 40-59, first examined in 1960, was followed-up for mortality for 50 years. The length of survival was estimated as a function of 48 personal characteristics and risk factors using the multiple linear regression.

Factor analysis in the identification of dietary patterns and their predictive role in morbid and fatal events.

Objective: The purpose was to examine the role of dietary patterns derived from factor analysis and their association with health and disease.

Design: Longitudinal population study, with measurement of diet (dietary history method), cardiovascular risk factors and a follow-up of 20 years for CHD incidence and 40 years for mortality.

Setting: Two population samples in rural villages in northern and central Italy.

The Mediterranean Adequacy Index: further confirming results of validity.

Background And Aims: Since dietary patterns can influence levels of major risk factors for chronic disease, various indexes or scores of overall diet quality have been proposed and related to risk factors for disease. The Mediterranean Adequacy Index (MAI) was developed to simply assess how close a diet is to the Healthy Reference National Mediterranean Diet (HRNMD), a healthful diet in which Mediterranean food patterns are inversely correlated with prevalence of risk factors for chronic disease. This report describes further evidence of MAI values for diets of population groups from different countries.

Mediterranean Adequacy Index of Italian diets.

Objective: To assess, particularly in longitudinal studies, how close or far the food intakes of population groups are from a reference dietary pattern.

Design: Computation of an index, called the Mediterranean Adequacy Index (MAI), by dividing the sum of the percentage of total energy from typical Mediterranean food groups by the sum of the percentage of total energy from non-typical Mediterranean food groups. The reference Italian-Mediterranean diet utilised was that of subjects from Nicotera in 1960.

Vegetable intake and long-term survival among middle-aged men in Italy.

Purpose: To examine prospectively the relationship between vegetable consumption and long-term survival.

Methods: In 1965, a total of 1536 Italian males from two Italian rural cohorts of the Seven Countries Study, aged 45-65 years, were examined. Information on lifestyle and food consumption collected at this visit, and total and cause-specific mortality data collected in 30 years of follow-up were analyzed for the present study.