Introduction: Chronic inflammation is a risk factor for many chronic diseases. The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) is a literature-derived index developed to measure the inflammatory potential of diet. A Children's Dietary Inflammatory Index (CDII) was developed to understand the association between diet and chronic inflammation-related health outcomes in children.

Methods: Food parameters that comprise the CDII include several nutrients like carbohydrates, various vitamins, minerals, and whole foods. To develop a reliable CDII scoring algorithm, aggregate data on children ages 6-14 were obtained from 16 different countries. This forms the basis for a world standard database to which all individuals' intakes can be standardized. Using this global database, CDII scores were calculated using dietary data from children between 6 and 14 years of age (n=3300) who participated in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2005 to 2010. Construct validation was performed using linear regression models with CDII as the independent variable and C-reactive protein (CRP) as the outcome.

Results: Positive associations were observed between the CDII and CRP (mg/l) (p-value<0.01) among all children. For each one-point increase in CDII (i.e., corresponding to a 12.5% increase in inflammatory potential of the diet as observed in NHANES) CRP increased by 0.053 mg/dl (standard error = 0.01).

Conclusion: Results indicate that the CDII predicts CRP among children aged 6-14 years. Further validation and analyses using NHANES, as well as other data sets, are required to deepen understanding of inflammation in child health and the CDII in predicting inflammation levels in children.

Learning Objectives:

Describe how the CDII was created

Describe the process of construct validation

Discuss the use of CDII as a means for informing primary prevention and for educating physician, parents, and children on the importance of healthy diet to reduce chronic disease rates and to enhance feels of well-being and to improve quality of life.

Acknowledgment: All authors received funding from USDA 2016-01022.

Citation Format: Samira Khan, Christian Alvarado, Michael Wirth, Nitin Shivappa, James R. Hebert. Development and validation of Children Dietary Inflammatory Index (CDII) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Tenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2017 Sep 25-28; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2018;27(7 Suppl):Abstract nr C45.