Table 3.
Relationships between mean M-HEI component scores and energy-adjusted DDC quintiles.
| M-HEI Components | Total Respondents (N = 450) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quintile 1 * (≤RM8.32) (n = 93) |
Quintile 2 (RM8.33–9.77) (n = 84) |
Quintile 3 (RM9.78–11.37) (n = 99) |
Quintile 4 (RM11.38–13.92) (n = 95) |
Quintile 5 (≥RM13.93) (n = 79) |
p-Value | |
| M-HEI Score | 57.14 ± 10.07 | 61.14 ± 9.60 | 61.86 ± 10.00 | 63.02 ± 12.09 | 63.26 ± 11.54 | 0.001 † |
| Cereals | 9.95 ± 0.52 | 10.00 ± 0.00 | 10.00 ± 0.00 | 10.00 ± 0.00 | 10.00 ± 0.00 | 0.027 |
| Poultry & Meat | 5.09 ± 3.74 | 5.58 ± 3.27 | 5.75 ± 3.48 | 7.27 ± 3.35 c | 8.11 ± 3.13 c | 0.268 |
| Fish & Seafood | 5.44 ± 3.77 | 6.00 ± 3.45 | 7.14 ± 3.20 b | 8.05 ± 3.15 c | 9.62 ± 1.33 c | 0.331 |
| Legumes | 2.28 ± 3.32 c | 4.60 ± 4.01 c | 6.47 ± 3.96 c | 7.05 ± 3.99 c | 8.44 ± 2.95 c | 0.297 |
| Milk Products | 3.12 ± 2.92 | 3.55 ± 2.66 | 3.77 ± 2.86 | 5.35 ± 3.35 c | 6.96 ± 3.12 c | 0.668 |
| Vegetables | 4.14 ± 2.24 | 4.42 ± 2.72 | 5.18 ± 2.79 | 6.93 ± 2.98 c | 8.52 ± 2.52 c | 0.017 |
| Fruits | 3.87 ± 2.73 a | 5.04 ± 2.88 c | 5.79 ± 2.94 c | 7.72 ± 2.94 c | 9.38 ± 1.76 c | <0.001 |
| Fat ** | 6.24 ± 4.15 | 6.85 ± 4.09 | 7.47 ± 3.38 | 6.16 ± 4.22 | 7.41 ± 3.57 | 0.971 |
| Sodium ** | 1.99 ± 3.91 | 3.69 ± 4.67 | 3.33 ± 4.57 | 2.16 ± 4.04 | 1.52 ± 3.52 | 0.130 |
Quintile 1 *: Reference. ** Higher scores represent lower consumption of saturated fat and sodium. Significance of pairwise differences (ANOVA/Tukey post hoc) compared with the reference group: a p < 0.05, b p< 0.01, c p < 0.001. † p-value obtained from a linear regression model adjusted for age and personal income for M-HEI score and DDC quintiles (Total respondents R2 = 0.046; df (5,444) = 4.24; p = 0.001). p-value obtained from a linear regression model adjusted for age and personal income that treated diet cost quintiles as continuous by modelling the median value of each quintile category (dependent variable) and all M-HEI component scores (Total respondents R2 = 0.094; df (10,439) = 4.53; p < 0.001).