Associations between diet quality and anthropometric measures in white postmenopausal women

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship between diet and anthropometric measures in postmenopausal women. Data collected from 937 women enrolled in the Minnesota Green Tea Trial (NTC00917735) were used for this analysis. Dietary intake and health-related data were collected via questionnaires. Body weight, height, and waist circumference (WC) were measured by the study staff. The mean age of participants was 59.8 years and mean WC was 83 cm. Approximately 30% of the participants had WC greater than 88 cm. Healthy Eating Index-2015 score was 72.6 and the Dietary Inflammatory Index score was 0. Intakes of whole grains, dairy, protein, sodium, and saturated fat did not meet the dietary guidelines. Only 12.5% consumed the recommended daily amount of calcium (mean intake = 765 mg/day). When calcium supplements were considered, only 35.2% of the participants had adequate intakes, even though 68.9% reported taking a calcium supplement. We found that age and number of medications taken were significantly associated with waist circumference (p = 0.005). Women who reported taking two or more medications had greater WC (85 cm) compared to women who reported not taking any medications (82.2 cm), p = 0.002. Our findings suggest that achieving adequate calcium and vitamin D intake may be challenging to postmenopausal women.