Good adherence to mediterranean diet can prevent gastrointestinal symptoms: A survey from Southern Italy

Table 1 KidMed test to assess adherence to the Mediterranean diet

Scoring
+1	Has one fruit or fruit juice every day
+1	Has a second fruit every day
+1	Has fresh or cooked vegetables regularly once a day
+1	Has fresh or cooked vegetables more than once a day
+1	Consumes fish regularly (at least 2-3 times per week)
-1	Goes more than once a week to a fast-food (hamburger) restaurant
+1	Likes pulses and eats them more than once a week
+1	Consumes pasta or rice almost every day (5 or more times per week)
+1	Has cereals or grains for breakfast
+1	Consumes nuts regularly (at least 2-3 times per week)
+1	Uses olive oil at home
-1	Skips breakfast
+1	Has a dairy product for breakfast (yoghurt, milk, etc.)
-1	Has commercially baked goods or pastries for breakfast
+1	Has two yoghurt and/or some cheese (40 g) daily
-1	Has sweets and candy several times every day

Table 2 Short mediterranean diet questionnaire

Scoring
+1	Olive Oil (> 1 spoon/d)
+1	Fruit (≥ 1 serving/d)
+1	Vegetables or Salads (≥ 1 serving/d)
+1	Fruit (≥ 1 serving/d) and vegetable (≥ 1 serving/d)
+1	Legumes (≥ 2 serving/d)
+1	Fish (≥ 3 serving/d)
+1	Wine (≥ 1 glass/d)
+1	Meat ( ≤ 1 serving/d)
+1	White bread ( ≤ 1 serving/d) and rice ( ≤ 1 serving/wk) or whole-grain bread (> 5/wk)

Table 3 Distribution by level of adherence to the Mediterranean diet (low, intermediate and high adherence) and age category (17-24; 25-34; 35-49; 50-65; > 65 years) n (%)

		Level of adherence to MD
	Age category (yr)	Low	Intermediate	High
CNT	17-24	61 (20.5)	158 (53.0)	79 (26.5)
	25-34	11 (11.8)	55 (59.1)	27 (29)
	35-49	14 (9.9)	91 (64.5)	36 (25.5)
	50-65	22 (16.4)	89 (66.4)	23 (17.2)
	> 65	3 (5.7)	37 (69.8)	13 (21.9)
IBS	17-24	10 (34.5)	17 (56.8)	2 (6.9)
	25-34	6 (25)	18 (75)	0
	35-49	13 (28.3)	27 (58.7)	6 (13)
	50-65	4 (9.8)	29 (70.7)	8 (19.5)
	> 65	5 (15.6)	20 (62.5)	7 (21.9)
FD	17-24	38 (39.2)	43 (44.3)	16 (16.5)
	25-34	7 (20.6)	25 (73.5)	2 (5.9)
	35-49	7 (14)	34 (68)	9 (18)
	50-65	7 (15.2)	25 (54.3)	14 (30.4)
	> 65	4 (25)	6 (37.5)	6 (37.5)

MD: Mediterranean diet; IBS: Irritable bowel syndrome; FD: Functional dyspepsia.

Table 4 Mean adherence score sorted by gender and cluster

Age range (yr)	Sex	CNT	FD	IBS
		Mean ± SD	Mean ± SD	Mean ± SD
17-24	Tot	0.56 ± 0.21	0.44b± 0.21	0.45a± 0.20
	M	0.55 ± 0.20	0.39b± 0.19	0.46 ± 0.26
	F	0.57 ± 0.22	0.48a± 0.22	0.44a± 0.17
25-34	Tot	0.69 ± 0.20	0.58a± 0.22	0.49b± 0.21
	M	0.70 ± 0.18	0.60 ± 0.24	0.46a± 0.20
	F	0.68 ± 0.21	0.56 ± 0.17	0.50a± 0.21
35-49	Tot	0.69 ± 0.19	0.64 ± 0.20	0.56 ± 0.24
	M	0.70 ± 0.20	0.74 ± 0.15	0.65 ± 0.21
	F	0.69 ± 0.19	0.61 ± 0.21	0.55a± 0.24
50-64	Tot	0.62 ± 0.20	0.69 ± 0.24	0.66 ± 0.18
	M	0.60 ± 0.19	0.65 ± 0.21	0.75 ± 0.26
	F	0.63 ± 0.20	0.70 ± 0.25	0.64 ± 0.19
> 64	Tot	0.71 ± 0.18	0.67 ± 0.28	0.64 ± 0.24
	M	0.74 ± 0.12	0.70 ± 0.32	0.69 ± 0.26
	F	0.69 ± 0.21	0.64 ± 0.25	0.62 ± 0.23

^aP < 0.05 vs CNT;

^bP < 0.001 vs CNT. FD: Functional dyspepsia; IBS: Irritable bowel syndrome.

Table 5 Multivariate analyses

	Low adherence			Intermediate adherence
	OR	95%CI	P value	OR	95%CI	P value
FD	2.42	1.47-3.99	< 0.0001	1.34	0.88-2.03	NS
IBS	3.24	1.73-6.08	< 0.0001	1.91	1.13-3.22	< 0.05
17-24 yr	4.65	2.00-10.81	< 0.0001	1.78	0.13-24.96	NS

IBS: Irritable bowel syndrome; FD: Functional dyspepsia.