Table 3.
Summary of included studies according to design characteristics
| Characteristics | Category | Association between DQP and VAT* (%) | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| None | Partial | Significant‡ | ||||||
| n | % | n | % | n | % | |||
| All studies | 5 | 14 | 8 | 13 | 22 | 63 | 35 | |
| Diet quality pattern | A priori | 5 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 81 | 26 |
| A posteriori | 0 | 0 | 8 | 89 | 1 | 11 | 9 | |
| Dietary assessment | FFQ | 4 | 16 | 6 | 24 | 15 | 60 | 25 |
| Other | 1 | 10 | 2 | 20 | 7 | 70 | 10 | |
| Imaging method† | MRI | 2 | 14 | 3 | 21 | 9 | 64 | 14 |
| CT | 1 | 17 | 1 | 17 | 4 | 66 | 6 | |
| DXA | 1 | 8 | 4 | 31 | 8 | 61 | 13 | |
| Ultrasound | 1 | 50 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 50 | 2 | |
| Age range | <50 years | 0 | 0 | 3 | 21 | 11 | 79 | 14 |
| ≥50 years | 5 | 24 | 5 | 24 | 11 | 52 | 21 | |
| Ethnic composition | One group | 3 | 17 | 7 | 39 | 8 | 44 | 18 |
| ≥2 groups | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 11 | 92 | 12 | |
| No information | 2 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 60 | 5 | |
| Year of publication | <2020 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 25 | 8 | 67 | 12 |
| ≥2020 | 4 | 17 | 5 | 22 | 14 | 61 | 23 | |
| Geographic location | USA | 1 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 14 | 88 | 16 |
| Europe | 3 | 30 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 60 | 10 | |
| Africa | 0 | 0 | 3 | 75 | 1 | 25 | 4 | |
| Asia | 1 | 33 | 2 | 67 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| S. America | 0 | 0 | 1 | 50 | 1 | 50 | 2 | |
| Body size adjustment | Yes | 3 | 15 | 4 | 20 | 13 | 65 | 20 |
| No | 2 | 13 | 4 | 27 | 9 | 60 | 15 | |
| Overall risk of bias | Strong | 4 | 14 | 8 | 29 | 16 | 57 | 28 |
| Moderate | 1 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 86 | 7 | |
*
DQP, diet quality pattern; VAT, visceral adipose tissue.
†
CT, computed tomography; DXA, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.
‡
Significant association of higher diet quality with lower VAT.