Validation of a self-administered FFQ in adults in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay

Abstract

Objective: To assess the reproducibility and validity among adults in the Southern Cone of Latin America (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay) of a self-administered FFQ to be used in the CESCAS I Study, an ongoing observational prospective cohort study to detect and follow up CVD and their risk factors, as well as in other epidemiological studies. Design: Relative validity of the FFQ was evaluated by comparing nutrient and selected food group intakes with those from three 24 h recalls (24HR) administered over 6 months. The FFQ was administered at baseline (FFQ1) and again after 3 months (FFQ2). Setting: Primary-care centres in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Subjects: Adults (n 147) aged 21-74 years. Results: Reproducibility (FFQ1 v. FFQ2): the intra-class correlation coefficients for nutrients ranged from 0?52 (potassium) to 0?74 (fat). Validity (FFQ1 v. the average of three 24HR): the Pearson correlations for energy-adjusted nutrients ranged from 0?39 (thiamin and cholesterol) to 0?59 (carbohydrate). Joint classification: overall, 66 % of participants in the lowest 24HR quintile were in the lowest one or two FFQ1 quintiles, and 62 % of those in the highest 24HR quintile were in the highest one or two FFQ1 quintiles. On average, only 4 % were misclassified into extreme quintiles. Conclusions: The FFQ version for the Southern Cone seems to present moderate to acceptable relative validity and reliability for its use in the CESCAS I Study to measure dietary exposure.Keywords FFQ Validity Reproducibility Southern Cone of Latin America CVD are increasing throughout the world and cause 16?7 million deaths each year, 80 % of which occur in lowand middle-income countries. Most cardiovascular risk in the Southern Cone of Latin America (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay) could be explained by tobacco use, abnormal lipids, abdominal obesity and high blood pressure, as shown in the INTERHEART Latin American study that included 3125 cases and controls from different Latin American countries (1) . In Argentina, recent estimates have shown that there were more than 600 000 disabilityadjusted life years and almost 400 000 years of potential life lost due to CHD and stroke in 2005. Modifiable risk factors explained 75?0 % of fatal and non-fatal acute CHD and stroke events, 75?5 % of costs for acute events and 70?7 % of disability-adjusted life years lost (2) .Nutritional exposures are considered risk factors for CVD as well as other non-communicable and infectious diseases (3,4) . FFQ are often used in epidemiological studies to investigate the relationship between diet and disease because they are easy to administer, less expensive than other methods and can, at least theoretically, assess dietary intake over an extended period of time (5) . Usually FFQ are not considered an appropriate method of estimating actual nutrient intakes of individuals, but they can be used to rank people according to their intake. This information is useful to categorize nutritional exposures for epidemiological studies (6) .FFQ may be administered by tr...

Reproducibility and relative validity of a semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire in an adult population of Rosario, Argentina

“…This could have happened because in the second administration of the FFQ the participants could quantify their food intake more precisely due to the familiarity with the FFQ methodology. These findings are consistent with results of other studies in similar 10,11 and different populations [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] .…”

“…The energy and macronutrient intakes observed in this study were similar to that obtained by Dehghan et al through 24-hour recall 10 . On the other hand, Elorriaga et al 11 obtained lower values of energy and nutrients intakes, possibly because of the sampling selection of the study, which was done in primary-care clinics. In their study, the mean age of the sample was higher, which could have resulted in a lower mean intake compared with our results 11 .…”

Relative validity of a semi-quantitative, web-based FFQ used in the ‘Snart Forældre’ cohort – a Danish study of diet and fertility

“…Among micronutrients, highest correlation coefficients were seen for vitamin D, Mg and Se. High correlation coefficients between FFQ and 24 h recall have been reported for vitamin D by Elorriaga et al (33) and Streppel et al (34) . Toft et al (32) and Johansson et al (35) found correlations for saturated fat of the same magnitude as in the present study when comparing FFQ and 24 h recalls.…”

Self-administered structured food record for measuring individual energy and nutrient intake in large cohorts: Design and validation

“…Our NQ validity indicators are comparable to those reported by other local authors using different methodology. 13,15 In fact, a validation study of FFQ vs. 24 h-DR conducted in urban Rosario, Argentina, in a comparable age-group, reported similar r-values for energy and fat intake and lower levels for protein and carbohydrate intake. 13 A survey in southern Latin America (Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay) using a FFQ in a 21---74-year age-group found comparable results.…”

“…Therefore, these prerequisites permit only self-administered tools. Of the existing, validated tools for assessing food intake in Argentina 12,13 and the Southern Cone of Latin America, 14,15 only one is self-administered 16 ; however, all these measures are FFQs or 24 h-DR.…”