gms | German Medical Science

Background/research question: Current food systems, dietary habits and food choices negatively impact our health and environment. In order to initiate targeted measures, it is important to monitor dietary patterns and food choices in populations. Currently, the second Tyrolean Nutrition Survey (TNS2021) is conducted to assess dietary intake, anthropometric data, and physical activity of adults living in Tyrol. One of the goals is to build a database to identify nutrition trends and problems by regularly recording dietary habits. Another goal is to assess diet-related environmental impacts. For this purpose, a Dietary Sustainability Index (DSI) will be developed and evaluated. The index will not only allow to see correlations with food and nutrient intake, food choices, sociodemographic and -economic data and anthropometric data but also to analyse dietary patterns and consumption trends in the Tyrolean population regarding their quality and sustainability.

Methods: The TNS2021 has a cross-sectional design with the aim to collect representative data for the adult population from the Tyrolean regions of Innsbruck (NUTS-3 region AT332). Using two 24 h recalls at intervals of 6 weeks, food intake is assessed retrospectively. Based on the food intake, energy and nutrient intake is calculated using a German and Austrian database. Anthropometric data such as body height, body weight and body composition are measured by using calibrated scales and stadiometers as well as bioelectrical impedance analysis. Sociodemographic and economic data, physical activity, motives for food choices, dietary habits, intake of supplements and health-related questions are collected by answering questionnaires. In order to assess environmental impacts such as CO₂-equivalents, land and water use, data on food intake will be linked to data from Life Cycle Assessments. Threshold values for the selected indicators are defined and evaluated.

Conclusion: 308 people have participated in the study so far. We expect participants with higher education and income to score higher at the DSI. We also suspect that participants who choose foods and products by considering health and environmental aspects have higher scores. Participants following a traditional Tyrolean dietary pattern are likely to obtain lower scores. Identifying major factors influencing dietary habits and diet-related environmental impacts provide an essential basis for designing effective interventions to modify eating behaviours, especially to improve sustainable eating habits.

Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.