{"doi":"10.1093/jn/nxab170","title":"Higher Global Diet Quality Score Is Associated with Less 4-Year Weight Gain in US Women","abstract":"BACKGROUND: We have developed a simple and globally applicable tool, the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS), to measure diet quality. OBJECTIVES: To test the utility of the GDQS, we examined the associations of the GDQS with weight change and risk of obesity in US women. METHODS: Health, lifestyle, and diet information were collected from women (n = 68,336) in the Nurses' Health Study II (aged 27-44 y in 1991) through repeated questionnaires (1991-2015). The GDQS has 25 food groups (maximum = 49 points) and scoring higher points reflects a healthier diet. The association between GDQS change in 4-y intervals and concurrent weight change was computed with linear models adjusted for confounders. RESULTS: Mean ± SD weight gain across 4-y periods was 1.68 ± 6.26 kg. A >5-point improvement in GDQS was associated with -1.13 kg (95% CI: -1.19, -0.77 kg) weight gain compared with a score change of <±2 points. For each 5-point increase, weight gain was 0.83 kg less for age <50 y compared with 0.71 kg less for age ≥50 y (P-interaction < 0.05). A >5-point score decrease was associated with 1.13 kg (95% CI: 1.04, 1.22 kg) more weight gain in women aged <50 y and 0.81 kg more (95% CI: 0.63, 0.98 kg) in women aged ≥50 y. Compared with little change in score, obesity RR was 0.77 (95% CI: 0.74, 0.81) for a >5-point increase and 1.32 (95% CI: 1.26, 1.37) for a >5-point decrease. Risk of obesity did not differ by age. Compared with other diet quality scores, the Alternate Healthy Eating Index-2010 had somewhat stronger associations than the GDQS (P < 0.05) but the GDQS had stronger associations than the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women score (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Improvement of diet quality as measured by the GDQS was associated with less weight gain and risk of obesity in US women. The association was stronger for women aged <50 y. Associations similar in direction and magnitude were observed between the GDQS and obesity across age groups.","journal":"Journal of Nutrition","year":2021,"id":164013,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":40,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8401,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":38870,"name":"Yanping Li","orcid":"0000-0002-0412-2748","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":615426,"name":"Sabri Bromage","orcid":"0000-0002-6552-4871","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":230956,"name":"Shilpa N Bhupathiraju","orcid":"0000-0001-9910-6777","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":22384,"name":"Carolina Batis","orcid":"0000-0002-2823-6651","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":293107,"name":"Wafaie Fawzi","orcid":"0000-0002-2908-600X","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337318,"name":"Michelle D. Holmes","orcid":"0000-0002-8664-2172","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":55362,"name":"Meir J. Stampfer","orcid":"0000-0001-8865-935X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":55333,"name":"Frank B. Hu","orcid":"0000-0002-8233-6274","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":608182,"name":"Megan Deitchler","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":104570,"name":"Walter C. Willett","orcid":"0000-0003-1458-7597","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":277746,"name":"Teresa T. Fung","orcid":"0000-0002-0159-482X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":33,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:45:27.031465Z","pmid":"34689192","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}