title: Two new meal- and web-based interactive food frequency questionnaires: validation of energy and macronutrient intake.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Meal-Q and its shorter version, MiniMeal-Q, are 2 new Web-based food frequency questionnaires. Their meal-based and interactive format was designed to promote ease of use and to minimize answering time, desirable improvements in large epidemiological studies.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We evaluated the validity of energy and macronutrient intake assessed with Meal-Q and MiniMeal-Q as well as the reproducibility of Meal-Q.
  
  
  METHODS
  Healthy volunteers aged 20-63 years recruited from Stockholm County filled out the 174-item Meal-Q. The questionnaire was compared to 7-day weighed food records (WFR; n=163), for energy and macronutrient intake, and to doubly labeled water (DLW; n=39), for total energy expenditure. In addition, the 126-item MiniMeal-Q was evaluated in a simulated validation using truncated Meal-Q data. We also assessed the answering time and ease of use of both questionnaires.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Bland-Altman plots showed a varying bias within the intake range for all validity comparisons. Cross-classification of quartiles placed 70%-86% in the same/adjacent quartile with WFR and 77% with DLW. Deattenuated and energy-adjusted Pearson correlation coefficients with the WFR ranged from r=0.33-0.74 for macronutrients and was r=0.18 for energy. Correlations with DLW were r=0.42 for Meal-Q and r=0.38 for MiniMeal-Q. Intraclass correlations for Meal-Q ranged from r=0.57-0.90. Median answering time was 17 minutes for Meal-Q and 7 minutes for MiniMeal-Q, and participants rated both questionnaires as easy to use.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Meal-Q and MiniMeal-Q are easy to use and have short answering times. The ranking agreement is good for most of the nutrients for both questionnaires and Meal-Q shows fair reproducibility.
authors.affiliation: Karolinska Institutet, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Stockholm, Sweden. sara.christensen@ki.se
authors.forename: Sara E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Möller
authors.forename: Stephanie E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Bonn
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ploner
authors.forename: Antony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Arvid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sjölander
authors.forename: Olle
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bälter
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lissner
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bälter
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015930:Diet Records; D002149:Energy Intake; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Internet; adult; doubly labeled water; food frequency questionnaire; reproducibility; validity; weighed food record