What do babies eat? Evaluation of a food frequency questionnaire to assess the diets of infants aged 6 months.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the relative validity of a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for assessing nutrient intakes in 6-month-old infants.


METHODS
The FFQ was developed to assess the diets of infants born to women in the Southampton Women's Survey (SWS), a population-based survey of young women and their offspring. The energy and nutrient intakes obtained from an interviewer-administered FFQ were compared with those obtained from a 4-day weighed diary.


METHODS
A sub-sample of 50 infants aged 6 months from the SWS had their diets assessed by both methods. The FFQ recorded the frequencies and amounts of milks, baby foods, regular foods and drinks consumed by the infants over the previous seven days. The diaries recorded the weights of all foods and drinks consumed by the infants on four separate days within 15 days following FFQ completion.


RESULTS
Spearman rank correlation coefficients for intakes of energy, macronutrients and 18 micronutrients, determined by the two methods, ranged from r = 0.39 to 0.86; adjustment for energy intake tended to increase the correlation coefficients, range r(a) = 0.55 to 0.89. Bland-Altman statistics showed that mean differences between methods were in the range of -12.5% to +12.5% except for vitamin B12 (-18.9%).


CONCLUSIONS
Although there were differences in absolute energy and nutrient intakes between methods, Spearman rank correlation coefficients indicated reasonable agreement in the ranking of intakes. The interviewer-administered FFQ is a useful tool for assessing energy and nutrient intakes of healthy infants aged about 6 months.
Marriott
L D
LD
MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK. ldm@mrc.soton.ac.uk
Robinson
S M
SM
Poole
J
J
Borland
S E
SE
Godfrey
K M
KM
Law
C M
CM
Inskip
H M
HM
D015930:Diet Records; D004034:Diet Surveys; D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004044:Dietary Proteins / Q000008:administration & dosage; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology*; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D008297:Male; D018977:Micronutrients / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014886:Weaning
D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates; D004041:Dietary Fats; D004044:Dietary Proteins; D018977:Micronutrients