title: Standardization of the Food Composition Database Used in the Latin American Nutrition and Health Study (ELANS).
abstract: Between-country comparisons of estimated dietary intake are particularly prone to error when different food composition tables are used. The objective of this study was to describe our procedures and rationale for the selection and adaptation of available food composition to a single database to enable cross-country nutritional intake comparisons. Latin American Study of Nutrition and Health (ELANS) is a multicenter cross-sectional study of representative samples from eight Latin American countries. A standard study protocol was designed to investigate dietary intake of 9000 participants enrolled. Two 24-h recalls using the Multiple Pass Method were applied among the individuals of all countries. Data from 24-h dietary recalls were entered into the Nutrition Data System for Research (NDS-R) program after a harmonization process between countries to include local foods and appropriately adapt the NDS-R database. A food matching standardized procedure involving nutritional equivalency of local food reported by the study participants with foods available in the NDS-R database was strictly conducted by each country. Standardization of food and nutrient assessments has the potential to minimize systematic and random errors in nutrient intake estimations in the ELANS project. This study is expected to result in a unique dataset for Latin America, enabling cross-country comparisons of energy, macro- and micro-nutrient intake within this region.
authors.affiliation: Commitee of Nutrition and Wellbeing, International Life Science Institute (ILSI-Argentina), Buenos Aires C1059ABF, Argentina. ikovalskys@gmail.com.|Facultad de Ciencias Medicas, Departamento Nutricion, Universidad Favaloro, Solís 453, Buenos Aires C1078AAI, Argentina. ikovalskys@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kovalskys
authors.affiliation: Fundação Jose Luiz Egydio Setubal, Hospital Infantil Sabara, Instituto Pensi, São Paulo 01239-040, Brazil. mauro.fisberg@gmail.com.|Centro de Atendimento e Apoio ao Adolescente, Departamento de Pediatria, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo 04023-062, Brazil. mauro.fisberg@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fisberg
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica, Escuela de Medicina, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José 11501, Costa Rica. georgina.gomez@ucr.ac.cr.
authors.forename: Georgina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gómez
authors.affiliation: Centro de Nutrición Molecular y Enfermedades Crónicas, Departamento de Nutrición, Diabetes y Metabolismo, Escuela de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica, Santiago 833-0024, Chile. arigotti@med.puc.cl.
authors.forename: Attilio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rigotti
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Nutrición y Bioquímica, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. ycortes@javeriana.edu.co.
authors.forename: Lilia Yadira
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Cortés
authors.affiliation: Colegio de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito 17-1200-841, Ecuador. myepez@usfq.edu.ec.
authors.forename: Martha Cecilia
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Yépez
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigación Nutricional, La Molina, Lima 12, Peru. rpareja@iin.sld.pe.
authors.forename: Rossina G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Pareja
authors.affiliation: Centro de Estudios del Desarrollo, Universidad Central de Venezuela (CENDES-UCV)/Fundación Bengoa, Caracas 1010, Venezuela. marianella.herrera@ucv.ve.
authors.forename: Marianella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Herrera-Cuenca
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psicobiologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo 04023-062.. iona.zimberg@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ioná Z
authors.initials: IZ
authors.lastname: Zimberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory and Nutritional Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA 01854, USA. Katherine_Tucker@uml.edu.
authors.forename: Katherine L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Tucker
authors.affiliation: University of Munich Medical Center, Division of Metabolic and Nutritional Medicine, Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, D-80337 Munich, Germany. mauro.fisberg@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Berthold
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Koletzko
authors.affiliation: Nutrition and Health Sciences Program, Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. michael.pratt@emory.edu.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pratt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000592:standards*; D004032:Diet / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000592:standards*; D004435:Eating / Q000208:ethnology*; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000208:ethnology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D007843:Latin America; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009749:Nutrition Surveys / Q000592:standards*; D009752:Nutritional Status / Q000208:ethnology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Latin America; food composition database; nutrition; standardization