Objective: To identify dietary patterns in Mexican female adolescents by two statistic methods.
Material and methods: Cross-sectional study of 477 women 12 to 19 years of age -National Nutrition Survey, 1999. Dietary patterns were obtained by factor and cluster analyses.
Results: Three dietary patterns were identified by cluster analysis: "Urban-poor" [U] (9.7%), "Rural" [R] (47.9%), and "Western" [W] (42.3%). Pattern [U] was characterized by a sizeable intake of maize products (20%) and industrialized foods (17%). Maize products and legumes predominated in the [R] pattern (48% and 6% of total energy, respectively). In the [W] pattern, wheat products and meat contributed 19% and 10.6% of energy, respectively. Moreover, four dietary patterns were identified through factor analysis. Factor 1 had a positive loading factor on wheat products, desserts, and meat. Factor 2 was characterized by a high consumption of low-fat dairy and low-fiber breakfast cereals. Factor 3 had a high loading for sweetened beverages and industrialized foods. Factor 4 had a moderate loading on maize products and legumes.
Conclusion: We identified dietary patterns in Mexican adolescent girls by two methods, obtaining comparable results between methods.