A systematic review of brief dietary questionnaires suitable for clinical use in the prevention and management of obesity, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes

Abstract

The aim of this systematic review was to identify and describe brief dietary assessment tools suitable for use in clinical practice in the management of obesity, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Papers describing development of brief (<35 items) dietary assessment questionnaires, that were accessible, simple to score and assessed aspects of the diet of relevance to the conditions of interest were identified from electronic databases. The development of 35 tools was described in 47 papers. Ten tools assessed healthy eating or healthy dietary patterns, 2 assessed adherence to the Mediterranean diet, 18 assessed dietary fat intake, and 5 assessed vegetable and/or fruit intake. Twenty tools were developed in North America. Test-retest reliability was conducted on 18 tools; correlation coefficients for total scores ranged from 0.59 to 0.95. Relative validation was conducted on 34 tools. The most common reference variable was percentage energy from fat (15 tools) and correlation coefficients ranged from 0.24, P<0.001 to 0.79, P<0.002. Tools that have been evaluated for reliability and/or relative validity are suitable for guiding clinicians when providing dietary advice. Variation in study design, settings and populations makes it difficult to recommend one tool over another, although future developers can enhance the understanding and use of tools by giving clear guidance as to the strengths and limitations of the study design. When selecting a tool, clinicians should consider whether their patient population is similar in characteristics to the evaluation sample.

Metric properties of the “prescribe healthy life” screening questionnaire to detect healthy behaviors: a cross-sectional pilot study

“…The degree of association between the number of portions of fruit and vegetables consumed measured by the PVS-SQ and PREDIMED FFQ presented statistically significant differences according to sex, with a moderate to high association for women and low association for men. Reliability is similar to that found in other studies made outside the context of PHC, ranging between 0.52 and 0.95 [37, 38]. Other studies confirmed the pattern of men consuming fewer servings of fruit and vegetables daily than women [37, 39–41], and found similar differences (2.52 vs. 3.47; P  < 0.01) in Baker et al [40].…”

Development of a brief, reliable and valid diet assessment tool for impaired glucose tolerance and diabetes: the UK Diabetes and Diet Questionnaire

“…The UKDDQ results are comparable to the results obtained for the NSQ and MEDAS. Formal evaluation of the time to complete the UKDDQ was not conducted; however, informal feedback from patients and nurses indicates that most people took about 5–10 min, which is consistent with similar-length questionnaires ( 12 ) .…”

“…We recently conducted a review of brief dietary questionnaires that can be used to rapidly assess diets in a clinical setting ( 12 ) . These tools demonstrated good-to-excellent relative test–retest reliability (correlation coefficients ranged from 0·59 to 0·95) and moderate-to-good relative agreement with diet records (correlations ranged from 0·16 to 0·79; the majority of tools demonstrated correlations of between 0·30 and 0·50).…”

Recommended Dietary Pattern to Achieve Adherence to the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology (AHA/ACC) Guidelines: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

“…83 A review of the 35 brief questionnaires designed to score intake on the basis of recommended foods (eg, fruits and vegetables) or dietary patterns (eg, DGA or the Mediterranean diet) concluded that similarity of the clinical population to the study population and the measurement characteristics of the instrument are important considerations. 84 Patient and public education has historically used food group dietary planning methods. 85 Simplified assessment tools can promote self-monitoring based on dietary pattern recommendations.…”