Associations of the HEI, Mediterranean, and MIND Dietary Patterns with Nutrient Intake and Adequacy in Older Adults

Abstract Diet quality is essential to healthy aging, yet the effectiveness of common dietary indices in predicting nutritional adequacy in older adults remains unclear. We address the gap by comparing popular indices: Healthy-Eating-Index, Mediterranean-score, and MIND-score. Using linear and multivariate-logistic regression models on a cohort of 72 older adults (mean age:77.5 years), we evaluated associations of the dietary indices with nutrient intake and the likelihood of meeting EAR/AI. Higher HEI-scores predicted greater intake of 12 nutrients (e.g., vitamin D, B12, potassium; all p < 0.05) and increased odds of nutrient adequacy for two. The Mediterranean-score had mixed associations, with higher vitamin C intake but lower adequacy of thiamin and selenium. The MIND score consistently outperformed both, predicting adequacy for 11 essential nutrients and showing the strongest predictive power. Therefore, we highlight HEI and MIND scores as effective for nutritional assessment in older adults, while the Mediterranean score may be limited by cultural context.