Maternal nutrition and lifestyle in pregnancy are important modifiable factors for both maternal and offspring’s health. Although the Mediterranean diet has beneficial effects on health, recent studies have shown low adherence in Europe. This study aimed to assess the Mediterranean diet adherence in 266 pregnant women from Dalmatia, Croatia and to investigate their lifestyle habits and regional differences. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was assessed through two Mediterranean diet scores. Differences in maternal characteristics (diet, education, income, parity, smoking, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), physical activity, contraception) with regards to location and dietary habits were analyzed using the non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test. The machine learning approach was used to reveal other potential non-linear relationships. The results showed that adherence to the Mediterranean diet was low to moderate among the pregnant women in this study, with no significant mainland–island differences. The highest adherence was observed among wealthier women with generally healthier lifestyle choices. The most significant mainland–island differences were observed for lifestyle and socioeconomic factors (income, education, physical activity). The machine learning approach confirmed the findings of the conventional statistical method. We can conclude that adverse socioeconomic and lifestyle conditions were more pronounced in the island population, which, together with the observed non-Mediterranean dietary pattern, calls for more effective intervention strategies.

Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of death worldwide. The aim of the present study is to verify the performances of a data mining methodology in the evaluation of cardiovascular risk in athletes, and whether the results may be used to support clinical decision making. Anthropometric (height and weight), demographic (age and sex) and biomedical (blood pressure and pulse rate) data of 26,002 athletes were collected in 2012 during routine sport medical examinations, which included electrocardiography at rest. Subjects were involved in competitive sport practice, for which medical clearance was needed. Outcomes were negative for the largest majority, as expected in an active population. Resampling was applied to balance positive/negative class ratio. A decision tree and logistic regression were used to classify individuals as either at risk or not. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to assess classification performances. Data mining and resampling improved cardiovascular risk assessment in terms of increased area under the curve. The proposed methodology can be effectively applied to biomedical data in order to optimize clinical decision making, and—at the same time—minimize the amount of unnecessary examinations.

Previous studies have confirmed the beneficial effect of a Mediterranean diet in mitigating health issues related to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. However, rapid changes in the traditional way of life and the “westernization” of the diet in Mediterranean populations, especially in younger generations, has led to progressive abandonment of healthy dietary patterns. In order to investigate the generation shift in dietary patterns and lifestyle habits in the Mediterranean part of Croatia, we compared two cohorts of 610 women (266 pregnant and 344 non-pregnant) from the same region, but from different age groups. The MDSS score was derived from food frequency questionnaires. The results showed that the young, reproductively active generation (pregnant women) in Dalmatia, Croatia, although having a higher education and socioeconomic status, exhibits a more adverse eating behaviour (lower adherence to the Mediterranean diet) and lifestyle (excessive smoking in pregnancy) than the older population from the same region. Lower MDSS scores across aggregated age groups in both cohorts showed significant association with higher blood lipid levels and higher smoking frequency. In conclusion, Mediterranean diet adherence is associated with biological markers (age, lipid profile) and lifestyle (smoking) in our study, with a more adverse trend observed in the younger generation.

Elite athletes differ from each other in their characteristics according to their discipline. This study aimed to identify performance predictors in elite Croatian sprinters taking into consideration their anthropometric, psychological and genetic characteristics. One hundred and four elite...