Objectives: To develop an interview-administered food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess usual long-term intake of foods and nutrients amongst women from the largest South Asian communities residing in Britain. Methods: A list of foods and dishes consumed by these South Asian communities was compiled from data collected in previous studies. Foods which contributed to interindividual variation in the intake of the various macronutrients or were rich in fat or fibre were included in the FFQ. Portion size for traditional foods were estimated using sets of eight colour photographs. A nutrient database was modified to make it appropriate for South Asian diets. The reliability of the FFQ was assessed in a group of volunteer South Asian women (n=14) of differing regional and religious backgrounds. A preliminary validation exercise was conducted in a group of Punjabi Muslim women (n=11) who had kept 7-day weighed records 2 years previously. Results: The reliability of this FFQ was high, with most women being classified in the same tertile for energy and macronutrient intake in the two interviews. The main sources of energy and macronutrients identified by the FFQ were similar to those identified by the weighed records but the average nutrient intakes estimated by the FFQ were slightly higher. The level of agreement between the two dietary methods, measured by the ability of the FFQ to classify women in the same tertile of intake as the weighed records, was high for percentage energy intake from fat, protein and carbohydrates, but less so for absolute nutrient intakes. These results were, however, limited because of the small sample size. Conclusions: This is the first FFQ specifically designed for South Asian communities in Britain. Despite the diversity of diets, these preliminary findings suggest it will be a useful and easy to administer tool in chronic disease epidemiology to obtain standardized information on long-term usual dietary intake from these communities. A more comprehensive validation of this FFQ is now underway.

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Summary Differences between the sexes in time trends of colorectal cancer incidence 1962-87 and mortality in England and Wales are examined in relation to changes in female hormonal factors. There was a trend in the sex ratio of this tumour, particularly marked for the descending colon, whereby the female excess in risk at young ages has almost disappeared but the male excess at older ages has increased. This trend started for cohorts born since the 1920s and coincided with the increase in the use of oral contraceptives and, to a lesser extent, with increases in fertility. The decline has been particularly pronounced for women at young ages born since 1935-39, coinciding with the spread of oral contraceptive use to younger age groups. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that female hormonal factors may play a role in the aetiology of colorectal cancer and with the possibility that oral contraceptive use might exert a protective effect in the descending colon.Keywords: colon cancer; rectal cancer; sex ratio; fertility; oral contraceptive; hormone Prompted by the observation that there were marked agespecific differences between men and women in the risk of colorectal cancer McMichael and Potter (1980) Potter and McMichael, 1983) have found that parity decreases the risk of colorectal cancer, which is consistent with the hypothesis. Others (e.g. Chute et al., 1991), however, have not shown such as association, and in one study (Kune et al., 1989) an association with number of children was also present in males, leading to the suggestion that this association is due to a lifestyle factor, not a female reproductive/hormonal factor. Relations to other reproductive events, such as age at first birth, age at menarche, age at menopause and exogenous oestrogen use have also been inconsistent (La Vecchia and Franceschi, 1991).Since there have been marked changes in fertility and oral contraceptive use between successive generations of women born in England and Wales, differences in time trends in the risk of these tumours between the sexes might be expected if reproductive-related factors played a role in aetiology in females. In this paper, recent sex-specific time trends in the incidence and mortality of colon (overall and by subsite) and rectal cancers in England and Wales are examined in relation to changes in reproductive variables. Materials and methodsData on colorectal cancer (International Classification of Diseases, ICD7-9: 153 and 154) (WHO, 1957(WHO, , 1967(WHO, , 1977 (Breslow and Day, 1987); results are reported as average annual percentage changes in the incidence and mortality rates during the period. Sex ratios were calculated as female-male (FM) incidence (or mortality) rate ratios. Data on female reproductive variables for successive cohorts of women born in England and Wales were extracted and recalculated as in dos Santos Silva and Swerdlow (1995).To compare changes in cancer risk for successive birth cohorts with changes in reproductive behaviour, agestandardised cohort registration...