{"doi":"10.3390/nu13061803","title":"Caregiver Status and Diet Quality in Community-Dwelling Adults","abstract":"Objective: We investigated cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of diet quality with middle-aged caregiver status. Methods: Caregiving in the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study (57.7% women, 62% African American (AA)) was measured at waves 3 (2009–2013) and 4 (2013–2017) (mean follow-up time 4.1 years). Diet quality was assessed by the Healthy Eating Index 2010 (HEI-2010) derived from two separate 24 h diet recalls. Multivariable ordinary least square regression was performed for cross-sectional analyses of the association of wave 4 caregiving with wave 4 HEI-2010. Wave 3 caregiving was examined both cross-sectionally and with annual rate of change in HEI using mixed-effects linear regression Models. Multivariable models were adjusted for age, sex, and poverty status. Results: Cross-sectional analyses at wave 4 demonstrate an inverse association of frequent caregiving (“Daily or Weekly” vs. “Never”) for grandchildren with HEI-2010 total score (i.e., lower diet quality) among Whites (β = −2.83 ± 1.19, p = 0.03, Model 2) and AAs (β = −1.84 ± 0.79, p = 0.02,). The “cross-sectional” analysis pertaining to grandchildren caregiving frequency suggested that frequent caregiving (i.e., “Daily or Weekly” vs. “Never” (β = −2.90 ± 1.17, p = 0.04)) only among Whites was inversely related to HEI-2010 total score. Total HEI-2010 score was also related to caring (Model 1), for the elderly over “5 years vs. Never” among Whites (−7.31 ± 3.54, p = 0.04, Model 2). Longitudinally, we found slight potential improvement in diet quality over time (“Daily or Weekly” vs. Never by TIME interaction: +0.88 ± 0.38, p = 0.02) with frequent caregiving among Whites, but not so among AAs. Conclusions: Frequent caring for grandchildren had an inverse relationship with the diet quality of White and AA urban middle-aged caregivers, while caring for elderly was inversely linked to diet quality among Whites only. Longitudinal studies should address the paucity of research on caregivers’ nutritional quality.","journal":"Nutrients","year":2021,"id":185199,"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":9,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.7507,"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":247987,"name":"May A. Beydoun","orcid":"0000-0002-1050-4523","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":108724,"name":"Michele K. Evans","orcid":"0000-0002-8546-2831","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":22038,"name":"Alan B. Zonderman","orcid":"0000-0002-6523-4778","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":422676,"name":"Marie Fanelli Kuczmarski","orcid":"0000-0001-6903-3386","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":247989,"name":"Sharmin Hossain","orcid":"0000-0003-1516-3251","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":57,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:48:34.992499Z","pmid":"34073304","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":[]}