[Spanish diet quality according to the healthy eating index]

To determine the quality of the Spanish diet by means of the Healthy Feeding Index (IASE) and its relationship with geographical and socioeconomic variables.

Cross-sectional descriptive study from the National Heath Questionnaire 2006 (ENS-2006). 29,478 people answering the Frequency of Consumption Questionnaire (CFC) were studied (women = 15,019; men =14,459). The IASE comprises 10 variables (grains and derivatives, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, meats, legumes, cold-processed meats, sweets, beverages, and diet-variety) constructed from the CFC and the recommendations of the Feeding Guidelines (Spanish Society of Community Nutrition 2004). The IASE categories (maximum score: 100) were: healthy feeding > 80 points; Need-for-change > 5,080; Little healthy, 50. A descriptive analysis was performed with differences of the means (Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests), and the Chi-square test to study the independency of the variables such as age, gender, social class, and educational level with the IASE categories.

72% of the whole sample needs changes in their feeding patterns. The mean score for women was 73.7 ± 10.5 and for men 69.9 ± 11.3 (p < 0.001). Among the healthy category, the age group > 65 years and women obtain higher percentage (38.8% and 28.3%, respectively) in comparison to men (18.4%). Besides, the higher the social class the higher the healthy diet index will be (class-I: 24.4%, class-II: 25.0%, class-III: 25.8%) (p < 0.001). The Autonomous Communities from Valencia (5.4%), Balearic Islands (4.6%) and Andalusia (4.3%) are the ones presenting the highest index of little healthy feeding.

The IASE is a rapid and cheap method to estimate the quality of the diet in the population since it uses secondary data coming from the ENS and the feeding guidelines. It is useful to planning the nutritional policies in Spain.