Hormozgan Med J. 2018 September; 22(3):e87320. Published online 2018 December 25. doi: 10.5812/hmj.87320. Research Article The Relationship Between Dietary Diversity with General and Abdominal Obesity in Female Amateur Athletes of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences Solmaz Keymaram 1 , Parvin Farzanegi 1, * , Leila Azadbakht 2 and Hadi Alinejad 3 1 Department of Exercise Physiology, Sari Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sari, Iran 2 Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran 3 Department of Exercise Physiology, Ayatollah Amoli Branch, Islamic Azad University, Amol, Iran * Corresponding author: Department of Exercise Physiology, Sari Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sari, Iran. Tel:+98-9112230233, Email: parvin.farzanegi@gmail.com Received 2018 December 11; Accepted 2018 December 11. Abstract Background: The prevalence of obesity in the world shows the impact of environmental factors such as sex, marital status, and changes in eating patterns as well as the replacement of high-fat diets rather than healthy diets. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between dietary diversity score, general obesity, and abdominal obesity among female athlete students of Mazandaran University of Medical Science. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 143 healthy amateur athletes aged 18 to 28 years old were randomly selected as female stu- dents. The usual food intake was evaluated using a 24-hour recall questionnaire for three consecutive days. Dietary scores were calculated based on scores of five food groups. Weight, height, waist circumference, and hip circumference were measured based on standard methods. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression were used. Results: There was an inverse and significant relationship between the dietary diversity score and general and abdominal obesity in amateur female students (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusions: There is an inverse and significant relationship between the adherence to a high-diversity diet and obesity patterns. Finding dietary patterns associated with obesity can help obesity prevention and provide a healthy diet for controlling this epidemic in the community. Keywords: Dietary Diversity Score, Dietary Diversity, Dietary Diversity, Abdominal Obesity 1. Background Obesity, as a multifactorial disease, is strongly asso- ciated with genetics, however, environmental factors are very effective on the prevalence of obesity throughout the world. These factors include the socio-economic sta- tus, sex, marital status, educational level, physical activity, changes in eating style, and replacing a high fat diet rich in refined carbohydrates and low in fiber with a healthy diet (1). In Iran, 67% of women and 32% of men aged 20 years old suffer from abdominal obesity (2). Obesity is associated with the risk of many chronic dis- eases. Many researchers have suggested that both general obesity and the distribution of fat in the body should be paid attention to (3). They believe that abdominal obe- sity increased the risk of other chronic diseases, such as metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular dis- ease, and mortality (4-6). Waist circumference (WC) and waist-hip ratio (WHR) are two important indicators in es- timating abdominal obesity; most researchers use World health organization (WHO) standards or adult treatment panel 3 to estimate belly fat. Therefore, a waist circumfer- ence of 102 centimeters (40 inches) or more in men, or 88 centimeters (35 inches) or more in women, is associated with belly fat. The prevalence of abdominal obesity is in- creasing throughout the world (7). Studies have shown that a healthy lifestyle and nutri- tion help the physical, intellectual, and social health of the individual, improve the quality of life, and reduce the cost of socio-healthy cares (8). According to the WHO, more than 80% of obesity-related illnesses can be treated by im- proving the quality of life and physical activity (9). On the other hand, various dietary and non-dietary fac- tors are associated with general obesity and abdominal Copyright © 2018, Hormozgan Medical Journal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.