Reproducibility of food and nutrient intake estimates using a semi-quantitative FFQ in Australian adults

Abstract

Objective: To assess the reproducibility of a 135-item self-administered semiquantitative FFQ. Design: Control subjects who had previously completed an FFQ relating to usual dietary intake in a nationwide case-control study of cancer between November 2003 and April 2004 were randomly selected, re-contacted, and invited to complete the same FFQ a second time approximately one year later (between January and April 2005). Agreement between the two FFQ was compared using weighted kappa statistics and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for food groups and nutrients. Summary questions, included in the FFQ, were used to assess overall intakes of vegetables, fruits and meat. Setting: General community in Australia. Subjects: One hundred men and women aged 22-79 years, randomly selected from the previous control population. Results: The weighted k and ICC measures of agreement for food groups were moderate to substantial for seventeen of the eighteen food groups. For nutrients, weighted k ranged from 0?44 for starch to 0?83 for alcohol while ICC ranged from 0?51 to 0?91 for the same nutrients. Estimates of meat, fruit and vegetable intake using summary questions were similar for both survey periods, but were significantly lower than estimates from summed individual food items. Conclusions: The FFQ produced reproducible results and is reasonable in assessing the usual intake of various foods and nutrients among an Australian adult population.Keywords Reproducibility Food-frequency questionnaire Short summary questions DietNutrition has been established as a major determinant of chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes (1) , CVD (2,3) and certain cancers (4) , with strong positive and negative effects on health throughout the lifetime. These effects may be a direct consequence of the nutrients in foods or indirectly related to energy balance, as it is widely known that habitual intake of energy in excess of expenditure results in weight gain and obesity is a risk factor for many chronic diseases. For example, the recent report from the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research concluded that red and processed meats increase risk of colorectal cancer, while high intake of certain fruits and non-starchy vegetables probably reduces risk of cancers of the ovary, pharynx and larynx, oesophagus and stomach (4) . Cohort studies have also shown that low intake of animal fat, moderate consumption of alcohol, particularly red wine, and high intakes of oily fish, fruits and vegetables are associated with reduced CHD risk (3) . Overall, it has been estimated that nutrition and associated factors (physical activity and obesity) may account for 30-40 % of all cancers (4) . In contrast to many other risk factors for disease, diet is potentially modifiable. It is therefore important that dietary intake be quantified through accurate and precise methods in order to determine the specific role dietary factors play in chronic disease promotion or prevention. In large-scale epidemiological studies...

Reproducibility of food consumption frequencies derived from the Children's Eating Habits Questionnaire used in the IDEFICS study

“…There have been reports on sex/gender differences in reproducibility of FFQs in adults and self-reporting children and adolescents; however, in general, results are not conclusive. 7,8,17,18,23 One possible explanation of our results might be the fact that we used proxy reports on diet. When parents and other proxies report on the children's intakes, it is possible that the sex of the proxy is more important than the sex of the child.…”

Olfactory impairment in older adults is associated with poorer diet quality over 5 years

“…First, number of odorants in the SDOIT may limit the ability to detect small decrements in odor identification or to distinguish hyposmia (partial loss of smell) from anosmia (complete loss of smell) [31,32]. Second, dietary intake was self-reported using FFQs which are known to underestimate energy intake and overestimate fruit, vegetable, and dairy intakes [33]. Nevertheless, a comprehensive assessment of the whole diet is less subject to measurement error than is the assessment of energy intake alone [34], and several TDS components used in this study were designed to account for misreporting [23,35].…”

Folate and related micronutrients, folate-metabolising genes and risk of ovarian cancer

“…If this is the case, then our estimates would be biased downwards and, consequently, the true estimates might be higher than those we observed thereby strengthening our conclusions that folate intake is not associated with reduced risk of ovarian cancer, and high folic acid intake might be associated with an increased risk among women who consume 10 g or more alcohol per day. Measurement error is always an issue, but to minimise this we used a dietary questionnaire that has been validated for (Marks et al, 2006a, b) and has been shown to be reproducible in (Ibiebele et al, 2009) the Australian population. Furthermore, among 185 control women, serum folate levels were correlated with total dietary folate equivalents as measured by our FFQ (r ¼ 0.40, Po0.0001).…”