Validation of a Retrospective Questionnaire Assessing Diet 10–15 Years Ago

Abstract

In 1985, 216 men, participants in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, were asked to report on their usual diet during the period 1971-1975. The reference data for past diet consisted of multiple seven-day records collected between 1971 and 1975. The group was randomly assigned to complete the diet history either by personal interview or by mailed self-administered questionnaire. The items and response categories were identical in both cases. For both groups, the mean nutrient intake estimated by questionnaire was within +/- 10 per cent of the past diet record values for most nutrients. When the questionnaire was administered by an interviewer, correlations with past diet were approximately as good as those obtainable with present diet in other studies and indicate that useful studies of past diet can be performed with this questionnaire. Correlations for the mail group were considerably lower and suggest that assessment of past diet using this questionnaire format without personal instruction or callbacks may yield poor results. The effect of age was negligible, but response errors and change in diet since the target period had important effects on correlations with past diet in both interview and mail groups.

Evaluation of energy intake estimated by a diet history in three free-living 70 year old populations in Gothenburg, Sweden

“…Block and Hartman (1989) have pointed out that age appears to have little adverse affect on the validity of questionnaires, at least when administered by interview, which is in concordance with the impression in this study. Different authors have found a good correlation to reference data among older respondents (Cummings et al, 1987;Sobell et al 1989;Brown, Fisher and Johnson, 1993), and better response rates among elderly than younger subjects have also been found (Jørgensen et al, 1993). A tendency to over reporting of 'desirable' food items such as fruit, bread and potatoes has been reported (Pietinen et al, 1988;Nes et al, 1992).…”

Preoperative eating behavior, postoperative dietary adherence, and weight loss after gastric bypass surgery

“…The questionnaire has excellent reliability and has been validated against multiple 4-day and 7-day food records. [26][27] Dietary Adherence-At each assessment point, participants were asked, "How well are you following the diet plan given to you by the dietitian?" They responded on a 9-point Likert scale that ranged from 1 ("not well at all") to 9 ("very well").…”

Relationship between changes in food group variety, dietary intake, and weight during obesity treatment

“…This questionnaire has been validated in many different populations. [10][11][12][13][14] Energy and macronutrient content of the diet were calculated from the questionnaire. Dietary variety was calculated for seven main food groups: (1) low-fat bread, cereal, rice, and pasta (LFB); (2) fruits; (3) low-fat vegetables (LFV); (4) low-fat meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts (LFM); (5) high-fat foods from the five main groups of the FGP (HFF); 7 (6) fats, oils, and sweets (FOS); and (7) combination foods.…”