Development and evaluation of a short instrument to estimate usual dietary intake of percentage energy from fat.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the data-based development of a short dietary assessment instrument, a 16-item screener; and to evaluate the performance of the screener, comparing its performance with a complete 120-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) in assessing percentage energy from fat intake.


METHODS
A subsample (n=404) of participants in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study, who had completed an FFQ and two 24-hour dietary recalls, also completed the fat screener. Percentage energy from fat from the screener and from the FFQ were compared with estimated true usual intake using a measurement error model.


RESULTS
For men, the mean percentage energy from fat estimates for the different methods were: recalls, 30.1%, screener, 29.9%; FFQ, 30.4%. For women, the results were: recalls, 31.3%, screener, 28.4%, FFQ, 30.0%. Estimated correlations between true intake and screener were 0.64 and 0.58 for men and women, respectively, and between true intake and FFQ were 0.67 for men and 0.72 for women. Estimated attenuation coefficients for the screener were 1.29 (men) and 0.98 (women) and for the FFQ were 0.56 (men) and 0.57 (women).


CONCLUSIONS
The percentage energy from fat screener, when used in conjunction with external reference data, may be useful to compare mean intakes of fat for different population subgroups, and to examine relationships between fat intake and other factors.
Thompson
Frances E
FE
Applied Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA. thompsof@mail.nih.gov <thompsof@mail.nih.gov>
Midthune
Douglas
D
Subar
Amy F
AF
Kipnis
Victor
V
Kahle
Lisa L
LL
Schatzkin
Arthur
A
D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*
D004041:Dietary Fats