| Lifestyle risk factors, such as unhealthy diet, physical inactivity or tobacco smoking can
have detrimental effects on health and well-being. Therefore, it is important to examine multiple
lifestyle risk factors instead of single ones. Cluster analysis allows the combination of
single health behaviors in order to recognize distinguished behavior patterns. This study
aimed to evaluate lifestyle patterns of general adult population in northwest of Iran with particular
focus on dietary patterns, physical activity, and smoking status.
Methods
The current cross-sectional study consists of 525 adults aged 18–64 years from East-Azarbaijan
Iran. Latent class analysis (LCA) was applied to recognize patterns of lifestyle behaviors
with ingredients of diet, physical activity, and smoking status. Dietary intake was
assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire and dietary patterns were derived
using factor analysis. Biochemical parameters including fasting blood sugar (FBS), serum
lipids, liver enzyme and serum 25(OH)-D3 were measured with commercial ELIZA kits.
Results
Mean ages of participants were 42.90 ± 11.89 years. Using principal component analysis
(PCA) three major dietary patterns were extracted including traditional dietary pattern (e.g.
nuts and dry fruits), unhealthy dietary pattern (e.g. fast foods, refined grains) and the healthy
dietary patterns (e.g. fruits, vegetables). Using LCA, three classes of lifestyles pattern were
identified: 1st class was characterized by a healthy dietary pattern, moderate physical activity,
and low probability of smoking. 2nd class was characterized by a traditional dietary pattern,
low level of physical activity and low probability of smoking and 3rd class was |