Validation of ALIVE!^© Block Food Frequency Questionnaire for Use with College Students

Abstract

For many young adults, college is a time of poor dietary habits such as consuming foods high in fat, sugar and total energy and low in fiber. These habits can contribute to long‐term consequences. In order to analyze the dietary habits of college students there needs to be a validated assessment tool. We tailored an ALIVE!© Block food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to this population. We recruited ninety‐four University of Maryland, College Park students (ages 18‐20, 68% female, 46% white/Caucasian, 23% Asian/Pacific Islander, 20% African American, 4% Hispanic, 3 % other). Students kept a food record for two weekdays and one weekend day. Food records were analyzed for nutrient content using Diet Analysis Plus 10th edition software. Trends in consumption of energy, carbohydrates, fiber, saturated fat, trans fat, and fruit and vegetable equivalents were reported. These data were then compared to FFQ data using Lin's concordance correlation coefficient (ρc). The FFQ tends to overestimate calories and saturated fat (ρc = 0.20 and 0.13, respectively) and underestimate trans fat, fruit and vegetables (ρc =0.06, 0.50 and 0.25 respectively). The FFQ is reliable at estimating fiber intake (ρc = 0.31). Overall, the ALIVE!© FFQ has been deemed unreliable in our target population. In future analysis, we will use three‐day food logs to quantify the dietary habits of college students. This Project was aided by University of Maryland College Park, Designated Research Initiative Fund and by Award Number UL1RR031988/UL1TR000075 from the National Institute of Health National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.