The third Italian National Food Consumption Survey, INRAN-SCAI 2005–06 – Part 1: Nutrient intakes in Italy

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Abstract

Background and aims

Italian National Food Consumption Survey, INRAN-SCAI 2005–06, is the third national food consumption survey performed in Italy. This study describes energy and nutrient intakes in Italy.

Methods and results

A national cross-sectional food consumption survey was conducted using consecutive 3-day food records between October 2005 and December 2006. A sample of 3323 males and females aged 0.1–97.7 years living in private households was investigated. Individual food records were converted into energy and nutrient intakes with the use of recently updated national food composition databases. For each subject, intakes of energy and of 27 nutrients were calculated, including six minerals (i.e., iron, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and zinc) and 10 vitamins (i.e., thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin C, vitamin B6, retinol, β-carotene, vitamin A as retinol equivalents (REs), vitamin E, vitamin D and vitamin B12). On average, 36% of calories appeared to derive from fat (11% from saturated fatty acids) and 45% from available carbohydrates (15% from soluble carbohydrates).

Conclusions

The results of the INRAN-SCAI 2005–06 survey in terms of nutrient intakes provide an important piece of information for nutrition surveillance of the population and may also be used to identify priorities for further research.

Introduction

An imbalanced intake of nutrients is associated with increased morbidity and mortality from diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, etc. [1] There is an international consensus that healthy food choices and adequate physical activity level may improve health conditions and prevent chronic diseases [2], [3].

Estimating nutrient intake is an important part of activities aimed at monitoring nutritional status. It allows the identification of groups nutritionally at risk due to insufficient or excessive intake of specific nutrients; to target, plan and evaluate nutrition intervention programmes; and to establish dietary recommendations, food regulations and nutrition policies [4].

In Italy, the last national food consumption survey had been carried out in 1994–96: the INN-CA Study [5]. This food consumption database had allowed to estimate nutrient intake [6], [7], [8] and total diet studies were implemented [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14].

The results of some more recent Italian studies, assessing nutrient intake in sub-groups of the population, are also available in the literature [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22].

After about a decade, the third national food consumption survey (INRAN-SCAI 2005–06) was carried out and the results have been published in terms of food consumption [23].

This article is aimed at presenting descriptive statistics of energy, macro- and micro-nutrients intakes in Italy.

Section snippets

Methods

A detailed description of the study design, participation rate and survey protocol is reported elsewhere [23]. The main features are summarised here.

Results

Results in terms of response rate and under-reporting are illustrated elsewhere [23]. The physical characteristics of the study sample by age and sex are reported in Table 1.

Discussion

The food consumption survey INRAN-SCAI 2005–06 provides the most recent database to assess nutrient intake in the population, considering both the consumption of food and the consumption of supplements. This study presents information on intakes of a broad range of macro- and micro-nutrients in males and females for different age classes, which are often unavailable simultaneously.

The study was designed with the aim of representativeness of the total population at national level and in the four

Conclusion

The present descriptive data of the INRAN-SCAI 2005–06 survey provide a basic piece of information for nutrition surveillance of population. Further analyses will allow to identify the main food sources of each nutrient, to model usual intake on the basis of observed short-term intake, to assess the risk of deficiency for single nutrients, to assess the overall adequacy of the diet in terms of macronutrient intakes, to monitor time and geographical trends. Moreover, these data may constitute a

Acknowledgements

INRAN-SCAI 2005–06 survey was carried out within the project ‘Qualità Alimentare’ whereas the analysis of food consumption data in terms of nutrients was performed within the project ‘Palingenio’; both projects were supported by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policy.

The great competence and availability of D. Berardi (DASC sas) who developed the data management system was highly appreciated.

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