Validity and reproducibility of a self-administered semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire for estimating usual daily fat, fibre, alcohol, caffeine and theobromine intakes among Belgian post-menopausal women.
A novel food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was developed and validated to assess the usual daily fat, saturated, mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated fatty acid, fibre, alcohol, caffeine, and theobromine intakes among Belgian post-menopausal women participating in dietary intervention trials with phyto-oestrogens. The relative validity of the FFQ was estimated by comparison with 7 day (d) estimated diet records (EDR, n 64) and its reproducibility was evaluated by repeated administrations 6 weeks apart (n 79). Although the questionnaire underestimated significantly all intakes compared to the 7 d EDR, it had a good ranking ability (r 0.47-0.94; weighted kappa 0.25-0.66) and it could reliably distinguish extreme intakes for all the estimated nutrients, except for saturated fatty acids. Furthermore, the correlation between repeated administrations was high (r 0.71-0.87) with a maximal misclassification of 7% (weighted kappa 0.33-0.80). In conclusion, these results compare favourably with those reported by others and indicate that the FFQ is a satisfactorily reliable and valid instrument for ranking individuals within this study population.
Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. selin.bolca@ugent.be
Selin
S
Bolca
Inge
I
Huybrechts
Mia
M
Verschraegen
Stefaan
S
De Henauw
Tom
T
Van de Wiele
D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D001530:Belgium; D002110:Caffeine; D004032:Diet; D015930:Diet Records; D004041:Dietary Fats; D004043:Dietary Fiber; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017698:Postmenopause; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013805:Theobromine
D004041:Dietary Fats; D004043:Dietary Fiber; D002110:Caffeine; D013805:Theobromine