Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada (Apr 2018)

Perceptions of organizational capacity to promote physical activity in Canada and ParticipACTION’s influence five years after its relaunch: a qualitative study

  • Subha Ramanathan,
  • Guy Faulkner,
  • Tanya Berry,
  • Sameer Deshpande,
  • Amy E. Latimer-Cheung,
  • Ryan E. Rhodes,
  • John C. Spence,
  • Mark S. Tremblay

DOI
https://doi.org/10.24095/hpcdp.38.4.03
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 38, no. 4
pp. 170 – 178

Abstract

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Introduction: Poor diet quality has been shown to increase the risk of common chronic diseases that can negatively impact quality of life and burden the healthcare system. Canada’s Food Guide evidence-based recommendations provide dietary guidance aimed at increasing diet quality. Compliance with Canada’s Food Guide can be assessed with the Canadian Healthy Eating Index (C-HEI), a diet quality score. The recently designed Canadian Diet History Questionnaire II (C-DHQ II), a comprehensive food frequency questionnaire could be used to estimate the C-HEI in Canadian populations with the addition of food group equivalents (representing Canada’s Food Guide servings) to the C-DHQ II nutrient database. We describe methods developed to augment the C-DHQ II nutrient database to estimate the C-HEI. Methods: Food group equivalents were created using food and nutrient data from existing published food and nutrient databases (e.g. the Canadian Community Health Survey — Cycle 2.2 Nutrition [2004]). The variables were then added to the C-DHQ II companion nutrient database. C-HEI scores were determined and descriptive analyses conducted for participants who completed the C-DHQ II in a cross-sectional Canadian study. Results: The mean (standard deviation) C-HEI score in this sample of 446 adults aged 20 to 83 was 64.4 (10.8). Women, non-smokers, and those with more than high school education had statistically significant higher C-HEI scores than men, smokers and those with high school diplomas or less. Conclusion: The ability to assess C-HEI using the C-DHQ II facilitates the study of diet quality and health outcomes in Canada.

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