Introducing Population Eating Quality Index – A population dietary quality index for developed countries

Background: While there are numerous dietary quality indices for individuals, a longitudinal population-level index is missing from the literature. This article presents a novel population-level dietary index, the Population Eating Quality Index (PEQI) that measures a country’s annual dietary quality. Methods: Using data from the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Global Dietary Database, PEQI comprises of ten waste-adjusted food items for which weighted scores are assigned according to their effect on human health. Associations between the PEQI and health outcomes for a panel of developed countries were studied to further validate the instrument. Results: PEQI shows a slight upward trend with Greece and Czech Republic scoring the highest and lowest average scores, respectively. The index shows good predictive ability regarding life expectancy at birth and premature mortality, for an average developed country. Specifically, a one standard deviation increase in PEQI was associated with 3.23–3.45 years (a 26%–28%) increase (rate decrease) in life expectancy (potential years of life lost). Moreover, the direction of associations held even when adding a 1-year lag of the outcome in the models. Conclusions: PEQI has multiple potential applications in the ecological study of health and nutrition as an exposure or even as an outcome.