Development and Validation of the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) for Children 24 to 59 Months of Age.

This article focuses on the development and validation of the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) adapted for children aged 24-59 months to assess diet quality across diverse populations. The GDQS, originally designed for adults, was modified by scaling food-group consumption cutoffs to reflect children's lower energy needs and tested using dietary data from seven countries representing low-, middle-, and high-income contexts. Results showed that the GDQS correlated positively with energy-adjusted intakes of protein, fiber, and key micronutrients linked to nutrient adequacy, and negatively with added sugar and saturated fat in several data sets, while associations with fatty acids were inconsistent. Compared with existing metrics—the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) and the Global Dietary Recommendations (GDR) score—the GDQS generally performed well in predicting nutrient adequacy and diet-related noncommunicable disease risk, though MDD-W outperformed it in some settings for nutrient adequacy. The study found limited associations between the GDQS and nutritional biomarkers or overweight status, likely due to cross-sectional design and short dietary assessment periods. Overall, the GDQS is presented as a practical, food-based tool suitable for monitoring diet quality in young children globally, with applicability across varied cultural and socioeconomic contexts.