Quality of food-frequency questionnaire validation studies in the dietary assessment of children aged 12 to 36 months: a systematic literature review

Abstract

A child's diet is an important determinant of growth and development. Because of this, the accurate assessment of dietary intake in young children remains a challenge. A systematic search of studies validating FFQ methodologies in children 12 to 36 months of age was completed. English-language articles published until March 2016 were searched using three electronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL). Quality assessment of the identified studies was carried out using The Reduced Summary Score and EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned (EURRECA) scoring system. Seventeen studies were included and categorised according to whether they reflected long-term (≥7 d) or short-term (<7 d) intake, or used a biomarker. A total score for each micronutrient was calculated from the mean of the correlation coefficients weighted by the study quality score. At least three validation studies per micronutrient were required for inclusion. Fifteen studies (83 %) that considered validity of the FFQ in assessing nutrient intakes had quality scores from 2·5 to 6·0. Of those, ten (67 %) studies found FFQ to have good correlations in assessing dietary intake (>0·4). Of the nutrients with three or more studies available, FFQ validated using a reference method reflecting short-term intake had a good weighted correlation for Ca (0·51), and acceptable weighted correlations for vitamin C (0·31) and Fe (0·33). Semi-quantitative FFQ were shown to be valid and reproducible when estimating dietary intakes at a group level, and are an acceptable instruments for estimating intakes of Ca, vitamin C and Fe in children 12 to 36 months of age.

Validation of a Complementary Food Frequency Questionnaire to assess infant nutrient intake

“…Correlation coefficients observed in our study ( r = .52, range .18–.81) are compared favourably with other studies in infants and young children, particularly for vitamin C and E, riboflavin, calcium, potassium, iron, and zinc (Lovell, Bulloch, Wall, & Grant, ; Ortiz‐Andrellucchi et al, ). Correlation coefficients are affected by the agreement of the reference data, mode of administration, age, sex, and ethnicity of the study population (Preston, Palacios, Rodriguez, & Velez‐Rodriguez, ).…”

Development and evaluation of a food frequency questionnaire for use among young children

“…Diet plays an important role in the aetiology and prevention of obesity and dietary behaviours in childhood track through the lifespan and have impacts on adult health [3][4][5][6][7]. However, the evaluation of early dietary behaviours in obesity prevention is limited [8] by the lack of suitable dietary assessment tools among toddlers and young children [9][10][11][12]. Well-designed methods suitable for determining dietary intake in toddlers and young children are required to adequately evaluate obesity prevention efforts and provide the evidence base for nutrition policies and programs [13].…”

Dietary risk factors for urolithiasis in Korea: A case-control pilot study

“…The FFQ with 109 items suitable for the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was developed by the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This FFQ has high reproducibility and validity [ 8 9 10 ]. Food intake volume was referenced by food photos for estimation of quantities from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study [ 11 ].…”