Table 4.
Components of the NU-AGE index and their cut-off (maximum score) and threshold (minimum score) values (55).
| Component | Servings | Scoring | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum score (0) | Lower rangeb (1-10) | Maximum score (10) | Upper rangec (10-1) | ||
| Whole meal bread and wholegrain pasta or ricea | Bread 4–6 servings/day (140–210 g/day) Pasta/rice 2 ×80 g/week (23 g/day) |
Max | 1–163 g | 163–233 g | 233-max |
| Fruits | 2 servings/day (240 g/day) | 0 g | 0–240 g | ≥240 g | |
| Vegetables | 300 g/day | 0 g | 0–300 g | ≥300 g | |
| Legumes | 200 g/week (29 g/day) | 0 g | 0–29 g | ≥29 g | |
| Low-fat dairy | 500 ml/day | 0 g | 0–500 g | ≥500 g | |
| Low-fat cheese | 30 g/day | 0 g | 0–30 g | ≥30 g | |
| Fish | 2 times 125 g/week (36 g/day) | 0 g | 0–36 g | ≥36 g | |
| Low-fat meat and poultrya | 4 times 125 g/week (71 g/day) | Max | 0–71 g | 71–125 g | 125-max |
| Nuts | 2 times 20 g/week (6 g/day) | 0 g | 0–6 g | >6 g | |
| Eggs | 2–4 eggs/week (14–28 g/day) | 0 g | 0–14 g | >14 g | |
| Olive oil | 20 g/day | 0 ml | 0–20 ml | ≥20 ml | |
| Fluid | 1,500 ml/day | <1,000 ml | 1,000–1,500 ml | >1,500 ml | |
| vitamin D | Use supplement (10 μg/day) | No | Yes | ||
| Alcohol | Max 2 servings/day for men and 1 serving/day for women | >10 g for women >20 g for men |
≤ 10 g for women ≤ 20 g for men |
||
| Salta | 5 g/day (2,000 mg/day sodium) | ≥85th | 0–1,500 mg | 1,500–2,000mg | 2,000–85th |
| Sweetsa | Limited use | ≥85th | 0 | 0–85th | |
Fruit: maximum 1 glass of fresh fruit juices (120 ml) can be counted as one portion of fruit. Nuts: includes salted and unsalted nuts.
The cut-off value at which a participant would score 0 points was based on the 85 or100th (max) percentile (pct) of the data-specific intake distribution as higher intakes are not necessarily better (100th pct wholegrains (g): 696 DNFCS, 343 NU-AGE; 100th pct meat and poultry (g): 261 DNFCS, 110 NU-AGE; 85th pct sodium (mg); 3141 DNFCS, 2920 NU-AGE; 85th pct sweets (g): 195 DNFCS, 130 NU-AGE).
The range was divided into 10 and then points were given in proportion to the distance from the 0 point cut-off.
Calculation of points for dietary intake between the upper limit and the standard intake for maximum number of points: 10—(intake—recommendation upper limit) *10/standard upper limit.