Relative Validity of Nutrient Intakes Assessed by Questionnaire, 24-Hour Recalls, and Diet Records as Compared With Urinary Recovery and Plasma Concentration Biomarkers: Findings for Women

Abstract

We evaluated the performance of a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (SFFQ), the Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour Dietary Recall (ASA24), and 7-day dietary records (7DDRs), in comparison with biomarkers, in the estimation of nutrient intakes among 627 women in the Women's Lifestyle Validation Study (United States, 2010-2012). Two paper SFFQs, 1 Web-based SFFQ, 4 ASA24s (beta version), 2 7DDRs, 4 24-hour urine samples, 1 doubly labeled water measurement (repeated among 76 participants), and 2 fasting blood samples were collected over a 15-month period. The dietary variables evaluated were energy, energy-adjusted intakes of protein, sodium, potassium, and specific fatty acids, carotenoids, α-tocopherol, retinol, and folate. In general, relative to biomarkers, averaged ASA24s had lower validity than the SFFQ completed at the end of the data-collection year (SFFQ2); SFFQ2 had slightly lower validity than 1 7DDR; the averaged SFFQs had validity similar to that of 1 7DDR; and the averaged 7DDRs had the highest validity. The deattenuated correlation of energy-adjusted protein intake assessed by SFFQ2 with its biomarker was 0.46, similar to its correlation with 7DDRs (deattenuated r = 0.54). These data indicate that the SFFQ2 provides reasonably valid measurements of energy-adjusted intake for most of the nutrients assessed in our study, consistent with earlier conclusions derived using 7DDRs as the comparison method. The ASA24 needs further evaluation for use in large population studies, but an average of 3 days of measurement will not be sufficient for some important nutrients.

Prospective Study of Long‐Term Interrelationships Among Adiposity‐Associated Biomarkers in Women

“…Third, the potential effect of long-term blood storage on the biomarker stability might lead to nondifferential measurement errors and likely attenuate the observed associations in this study. However, the questionnaires used in the current study were highly validated against multiple types of information, including diet records and biomarkers (26,27,44). In addition, the consistency of our results with other previous experimental and population-based studies suggests that the observed associations were unlikely to be entirely explained by residual confounding or measurement errors.…”

Periconceptional folic acid and risk for neural tube defects among higher risk pregnancies

“…For example, the higher risk groups were not mutually exclusive, except for women with prepregnancy obesity. While random errors in the dietary data are plausible, a validation study of the Willett food frequency questionnaire detected valid folate intake compared to biomarkers and 24‐hour recall assessment (Yuan et al, ). We believe differential recall of the dietary data is unlikely because most U.S. consumers have poor health literacy and are not aware of micronutrient levels in food (Persoskie, Hennessy, & Nelson, ).…”

Dietary intake of fiber, whole grains and risk of colorectal cancer: An updated analysis according to food sources, tumor location and molecular subtypes in two large US cohorts

“…Consistent with our prior analyses, regular aspirin use was defined as use of at least two standard tablets (325 mg) of aspirin per week . Dietary risk factors, including alcohol, processed red meat, folate, calcium and vitamin D, were assessed through FFQs as previously described . To account for the amount of carbohydrate in a typical serving, we derived a global dietary glycemic load (GL) score by multiplying the amount of carbohydrates in the diet by the average glycemic index (GI) .…”