The aetiology of chronic diseases is complex and depends more on exposure to more overlapping/cumulative environmental factors rather than on exposure to a single factor, so the adoption of such holistic integration is encouraged. However, it is imperative to investigate the lifestyle pattern as a whole, in order to better understand its implications on health and disease ( 5). In addition to the unhealthy diet, the WHO identifies other important behavioural factors, such as physical inactivity, smoking and increased alcohol consumption as common risk factors for chronic diseases ( 11, 12).ĭiet is one of the modifiable behaviours that can help reduce cardio-metabolic risk and prevent chronic diseases, so an assessment of the general dietary intake of the population becomes essential ( 13). The WHO considers diet to have the most important role in the prevention of chronic diseases and to be one of the most important lifestyle factors, emphasising the importance of understanding its complexity and its relationship with chronic diseases ( 10). These patterns are influenced by many factors, such as climate, demographics, religion, culture and others ( 8). These models represent the interaction of all food choices that form a complete food pattern. Dietary patterns could as such provide a clearer, more accurate picture of a person's eating behaviour ( 9). Dietary patterns play an important role in health and therefore in the prevention of chronic diseases ( 8). These diseases include obesity, high blood pressure, CVD, type-2 diabetes, neoplasms and many more. The prevalence of chronic diseases increases as countries develop and become more industrialised. In nutritional research where only individual life factors were investigated, sophisticated statistical methods such as linear and logistic regression models have been selected to take into account the interaction and synergistic effects between these factors ( 6, 7).

It is worth mentioning that diet, as a lifestyle component, exerts its effects on health in a synergistic way or even in conjunction with other factors, which would not be reflected by examining each individual factor in isolation ( 3– 5).

However, dietary patterns should be included in the development and implementation of nutritional guidelines, which could improve the chances of preventing non-communicable chronic diseases ( 2). Moreover, difficulties related to these interactions are also reflected in our present knowledge about the dietary patterns that people commonly consume. The nutrient composition of foods varies considerably, and there are probably synergistic interactions between the nutritional components within any food, a topic that has been increasingly talked about lately ( 1). Historically, nutritional literature has often reported on issues regarding the role of individual nutrient on health, but not all nutritional compounds in foods have been fully studied. The dietary pattern exerts its effects on health in a synergistic way or even in conjunction with other lifestyle factors, and we can therefore refer to a ‘pattern of lifestyle’. Dietary patterns may vary according to sex, socio-economic status, ethnicity, culture and other factors, but more, they may vary depending on different associations between these factors. The methods more commonly used are based on exploratory data ( a posteriori): cluster analysis and factor analysis. For the determination of dietary patterns one can use indices/scores that evaluate the conformity of the diet with the nutrition guidelines or the established patterns ( a priori approach). It is an alternative and complementary approach in analysing the relationship between nutrition and the risk of chronic diseases. The food pattern has the advantage of taking into account the correlations that may exist between foods or groups of foods, but also between nutrients. We conducted a narrative review on the interaction between dietary patterns with demographic and lifestyle variables in relation to health status assessment.

Eating lifestyle