_GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE MEDITERRANEANDIET IN HEALTHY ADULT PATIENTS

Gender and age exert important influences on food preferences. Mediterranean diet (MD) is a healthy dietary pattern characterized by a high consumption of vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, fish, eggs, along with a moderate intake of meat, oil and wine. The aim of this observational study was to evaluate the adherence to the MD in a sample of adult population, stratified according to categories of sex, age, and body mass index (BMI). Materials and methods Cross-sectional study on 1013 healthy adult patients (461 males; 45.5%), largely representative of the adult population living in the Campania Region with regard to gender (v2 = 0.08, p = 0.777) (http://www.istat.it/it/campania). Patients were divided into five BMI categories and four age groups for each gender. The adherence to the MD was evaluated using the PREvencio´n con DIeta MEDiterra´nea (PREDIMED) questionnaire. Results The majority of subjects reached a high-average adherence to the MD, while only one third of the subjects were low adherers. Across all BMI categories, females showed an overall higher adherence to MD compared with males up to 18–28 age years. Within each sex and BMI group, we observed a significant increase of the adherence to the MD up to 29–38 years, with a subsequent decline along with increasing age. Within each sex and age group, the adherence to the MD tended to decrease with increasing BMI. A significant positive correlation was observed between PREDIMED score and BMI in normal weight in both genders. This association became negative along with increasing BMI. Conclusion Our findings showed that there is a clear gender difference in the association between the adherence to the MD and BMI, as female participants showed an overall higher adherence to the MD compared with male counterpart. However, in both gender this association showed a biphasic trend, which is characterized by a positive association in normal weight categories, and a negative association in the other BMI categories.