The Northern Ireland dietary survey and related studies.

The 1980s heralded an increased consciousness of the potential relationships between diet, lifestyles and health. Northern Ireland had a poor health record, having one of the highest death rates from ischaemic heart disease in the world, and there was a paucity of information on the lifestyle and dietary characteristics of its population. In contrast Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland had been monitoring food and nutrient intake through household food surveys, thereby providing time-series trends in food consumption and nutrient intake. For these reasons the Northern Ireland Diet and Health Study (NIDHS) was undertaken; it had the primary objective of obtaining baseline information on the dietary behaviour of the population and the secondary objective to relate these to information on health and nutritional status.