Classification and prediction of the effects of nutritional intake on diabetes mellitus using artificial neural network sensitivity analysis: 7th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to predict the association between nutritional intake and diabetes mellitus (DM) by developing an artificial neural network (ANN) model for older adults. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Participants aged over 65 years from the 7th (2016–2018) Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were included. The diagnostic criteria of DM were set as output variables, while various nutritional intakes were set as input variables. An ANN model comprising one input layer with 16 nodes, one hidden layer with 12 nodes, and one output layer with one node was implemented in the MATLAB(®) programming language. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the relative importance of the input variables in predicting the output. RESULTS: Our DM-predicting neural network model exhibited relatively high accuracy (81.3%) with 11 nutrient inputs, namely, thiamin, carbohydrates, potassium, energy, cholesterol, sugar, vitamin A, riboflavin, protein, vitamin C, and fat. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the neural network sensitivity analysis method based on nutrient intake demonstrated a relatively accurate classification and prediction of DM in the older population.