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© 2016 Australian Health Promotion Association. Issue addressed The present study investigated the association between diet quality, measured using the Australian Recommended Food Score (ARFS), and 6-year risk of becoming overweight or obese in mid-age women from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health (ALSWH). Methods Women (n≤1107) aged 47.6-55.8 years who were a healthy weight (body mass index (BMI) between ≤18.5 and

© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York. This systematic review examines the relationship between diet quality and weight gain in adults over time and is an update of our previous review of the same topic. The goal was to synthesise the best available current evidence on diet quality and weight change within longitudinal analyses. The inclusion criteria were case-control or cohort studies, and adults aged ≥18 years. The dependent variable was diet quality indexes and the independent variable was any measurement of body weight. The current systematic review identified 16 studies published between 1970 and 2014. Of these, eight were published since our last review. The findings of these recent studies confirm the results of our previous review, that higher diet quality is associated with relatively lower prospective weight gain, as well as a lower risk of becoming overweight or obese, compared with poor diet quality. Across the 16 studies, it appears that the diet quality indexes based on foods alone, or food and nutrient components, are more predictive of weight change. However, further research is needed to confirm this. Additionally, high-quality analyses that assess change in diet quality over time are needed.

Background: Short food questions are appealing to measure dietary intakes. Methods: A review of studies published between 2004 and 2016 was undertaken and these were included in the present study if they reported on a question or short item questionnaire (≤50 items, data presented as ≤30 food groups) measuring food intake or food-related habits, in children (aged 6 months to 18 years), and reported question validity or reliability. Thirty studies met the inclusion criteria. Results: Most questions assessed foods or food groups (n = 29), with the most commonly assessed being fruit (n = 22) or vegetable intake (n = 23), dairy foods and discretionary foods (n = 20 studies each). Four studies assessed food habits, with the most common being breakfast and meal frequency (n = 4 studies). Twenty studies assessed reliability, and 25 studies determined accuracy and were most commonly compared against food records. Evaluation of question performance relied on statistical tests such as correlation. Conclusions: The present study has identified valid and reliable questions for the range of key food groups of interest to public health nutrition. Questions were more likely to be reliable than accurate, and relatively few questions were both reliable and accurate. Gaps in repeatable and valid short food questions have been identified that will provide direction for future tool development. Refereed/Peer-reviewed