Folate Intake Of Selected South Carolina Women: Comparison of 24-Hour Recall Diet History and Food Frequency Questionnaire Methods

AbstractObjectivesAs a part of an ongoing project to develop a nutritional screening tool, we evaluated the performance of a semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) in terms of validity in a Sheffield Caucasian pregnant population using two different statistical approaches – the correlation coefficient and the limits of agreement (LOA). The FFQ was designed specifically for pregnant women and previously used in a large-scale study.DesignA validation study.SettingA community-based field study of a general population of pregnant women booked for their first antenatal appointment at the Jessop Wing, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, UK.SubjectsOne hundred and twenty-three women of different socio-economic status, aged between 17 and 43 years, provided complete dietary data.ResultsThe validity of the FFQ was tested against a series of two 24-hour recalls. As expected, the intakes of all examined nutrients, except for iodine, carotene, vitamin E, biotin, vitamin C and alcohol, were higher when determined by the FFQ than when determined by 24-hour recall. Pearson's correlation coefficient between the two methods ranged from 0.19 (added sugar, zinc) to 0.47 (Englyst fibre). The LOA were broader for some of the nutrients, e.g. protein, Southgate fibre and alcohol, and an increasing lack of agreement between the two methods was identified with higher dietary intakes.ConclusionsThe FFQ gave useful estimates of the nutrient intakes of Caucasian pregnant women and appears to be a valid tool for categorising pregnant women according to dietary intake. The FFQ performed well for most nutrients and had acceptable agreement with the 24-hour recall.

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Selection of food items for inclusion in a newly developed food-frequency questionnaire

Public Health Nutrition ◽

10.1079/phn2004599 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 7 (6) ◽

pp. 745-749 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Iris Shai ◽

Danit R Shahar ◽

Hillel Vardi ◽

Drora Fraser

Keyword(s):

Energy Intake ◽

Food Frequency Questionnaire ◽

Food Group ◽

Stepwise Multiple Regression ◽

Food Groups ◽

Food Frequency ◽

Food Items ◽

24 Hour Recall ◽

Β Carotene ◽

Selection Of

AbstractObjectives:To highlight the differences between the food list required in a food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to rank people by their intake and the food items that contribute to absolute intake, and to discuss possible applications.Methods:We conducted a nutritional survey among 1173 adults using an adapted 24-hour recall questionnaire.Statistical analysis:To develop an FFQ, we analysed the 24-hour recall survey data by performing a stepwise multiple regression after grouping conceptually similar food items into 175 food groups.Results:In total, 126 food groups were included in the developed FFQ in order to explain at least 80% of the variance in the consumption of each of 27 nutrients. The nutrients that were explained by a few food groups were vitamin A (one food group), alcohol (two), β-carotene (two), vitamin E (three) and cholesterol (five). Nutrients that were explained by a large number of food groups were energy (37 food groups), potassium (31), magnesium (31), dietary fibre (30), phosphorus (31) and sodium (29). Using energy intake as an example, soft drinks were the best between-person energy classifiers, while providing only 2.4% of the total energy intake. Wine, seeds and nuts, which contributed highly to the variance, were minor energy contributors. In contrast, milk, sugar, fried chicken/turkey breast or whole chicken/turkey, which explained little of the variation in the population, were major energy contributors.Conclusions:Developing an FFQ on the basis of common foods may not explain the between-person variation required for ranking individual intake in diet–disease studies. Producing lists of ‘discriminating items’ can be a useful application in developing mini-FFQs for selected nutrients.

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