title: Validity of maternal recall of preschool diet after 43 years.
abstract: Validation of early childhood diet recalls by surrogate responders decades later has not been possible because of a lack of diet records from the distant past. Between 1948 and 1970, parents of children participating in the Fels Longitudinal Study (Kettering, Ohio) completed a 7-day diet record for their children every year from birth to age 18 years. In 2005-2006, all surviving women (n = 59) with a child aged 3-5 years when diet records had been collected were asked to complete a 42-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) pertaining to 1 of their children's diets at age 3-5 years. One or more diet records were available for 48 children. The authors calculated Spearman correlation coefficients for correlations between food, food-group, and nutrient intakes from the diet records and the FFQ and deattenuated them to account for the effects of within-person variation in the diet records on the association. For foods, the median deattenuated correlation coefficient was 0.19 (range, -0.31 to 0.85); moderate-to-high correlations were found for some specific foods. Correlations for food groups were slightly higher (median, 0.27; range, -0.14 to 0.85). Correlations for nutrient intakes were consistently low (median, 0.06; range, -0.35 to 0.27). Overall, the FFQ did not validly reflect overall preschool diet when completed by mothers 4 decades later.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. jchavarr@hsph.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Jorge E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Chavarro
authors.forename: Karin B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Michels
authors.forename: Sheherazadh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Isaq
authors.forename: Bernard A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Rosner
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sampson
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Willey
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tocco
authors.forename: Walter C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Willett
authors.forename: William Cameron
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Chumlea