Methodological focus and application of exploratory dietary patterns in epidemiological research

dc.contributor.advisorSusan C. Welleren_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberM. Kristen Peeken_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberLaura Rudkinen_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberKatherine L. Tuckeren_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberElizabeth Reifsnideren_US
dc.creatorAnita Carol Nashen_US
dc.date.accessioned2011-12-20T16:04:39Z
dc.date.available2010-09-28en_US
dc.date.available2011-12-20T16:04:39Z
dc.date.created2010-04-26en_US
dc.date.issued2010-04-29en_US
dc.description.abstractStudying nutritional effects on health is an important piece of chronic disease epidemiology, but many challenges arise when attempting to adequately measure and account for complete dietary exposure. The exploratory approach to dietary patterns is a useful method that utilizes multivariate data reduction techniques to summarize overall dietary exposure into variables that can represent diet in observational studies. This dissertation presents two projects that focus on methodological considerations for the exploratory approach to dietary patterns. The first project compared different analytic methods used to derive dietary patterns, with and without data transformations. Findings from the project demonstrated that, with the use of appropriate data transformations, different analytic methods provide similar dietary patterns. The second project focused on the collapsing/grouping of dietary data prior to patterning to understand whether the number of food group variables alters the resulting patterns. Results demonstrated that dietary patterns were similar as food groups were collapsed to a smaller number of variables. A third project then utilized methods from the previous projects to explore diet’s association with A1C, a biomarker of glucose control, and examined the possible role of diet in the race/ethnic disparities in A1C. Findings demonstrated that non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican-Americans have higher A1C levels compared to non-Hispanic whites, and while a dietary pattern characterized by higher intakes of dark breads is associated with lower A1C levels, this dietary pattern and other lifestyle characteristics such as body mass index and physical activity did not appreciably explain race/ethnic differences in A1C levels.en_US
dc.format.mediumelectronicen_US
dc.identifier.otheretd-04262010-222021en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152.3/102
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright © is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the TDL web site by The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works.en_US
dc.subjecttype 2 diabetesen_US
dc.subjectrace/ethnicity and dieten_US
dc.subjectnutrition epidemiologyen_US
dc.subjectdietary patternsen_US
dc.titleMethodological focus and application of exploratory dietary patterns in epidemiological researchen_US
dc.type.genredissertationen_US
dc.type.materialtexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentPreventive Medicine and Community Healthen_US
thesis.degree.grantorThe University of Texas Medical Branchen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.namePhDen_US

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