Relative validity of a short food frequency questionnaire for assessing nutrient intake versus three-day weighed diet records in middle-aged Japanese.
BACKGROUND
Validation studies on brief food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) for measuring consumption of macro- and micro-nutrients for the general populace are not fully executed in Japan.


METHODS
Two hundred and two middle-aged Japanese (73 males and 129 females) in Aichi Prefecture, Japan completed an FFQ and 3day-weighed diet records (3d-WDRs) in February 2004. We compared intakes of energy and 26 nutrients computed with the FFQ against those with the 3d-WDRs as a reference.


RESULTS
Mean daily intakes of selected nutrients determined with the FFQ were generally less than those with 3d-WDRs. The ratios assessed with the FFQ vs. 3d-WDRs (minimum-median-maximum) were distributed from 0.57-0.79-1.09 for males, and 0.61-0.86-1.04 for females. De-attenuated, log-transformed and energy-adjusted Pearson's correlation coefficients between intakes of selected nutrients quantified with both devices were distributed from 0.12-0.45-0.86 and energy-adjusted Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were from 0.13-0.35-0.76, for males. The respective values for females were 0.10-0.38-0.66, and 0.11-0.34-0.47. Median percentages for exact agreement, agreement within adjacent categories, and disagreement according to quartile classification of the energy-adjusted nutrient intakes measured with both methods were 33, 74, and 5 for males, and 35, 76, and 7 for females, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Satisfactorily high relative validity indices of most nutrient intakes computed with the FFQ were attained against those with the 3d-WDRs. The questionnaire therefore appears applicable for categorizing individuals according to consumption of energy and selected nutrients in dietary studies of middle-aged Japanese.
Tokudome
Yuko
Y
Department of Health and Nutrition, School of Health and Human Life, Nagoya-bunri University, Aichi, Japan. tokudome@nagoya-bunri.ac.jp
Goto
Chiho
C
Imaeda
Nahomi
N
Hasegawa
Takako
T
Kato
Rieko
R
Hirose
Kaoru
K
Tajima
Kazuo
K
Tokudome
Shinkan
S
D015930:Diet Records; D002149:Energy Intake; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged