Identifying individuals with high fat levels and low P∶S ratios, in their diets, for intensive dietary intervention

Abstract

Abstract. Kinlay S, Elliott H, Heller RF (University of Newcastle, Royal Newcastle Hospital, Newcastle, NSW, Australia). Identifying individuals with high fat levels and low P : S ratios, in their diets, for intensive dietary intervention. J Intern Med 1997 ; 241 : 407-14.Objectives. To assess whether simple scores from a dietary questionnaire could identify those with high dietary fat or low P : S ratio intakes, for intensive dietary intervention. Design. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Setting. Community setting in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. Subjects. Two random samples of adults 35-69 years from the electoral roll. In the cross-sectional study 287\322 (86 %) subjects completed the diet questionnaire and a reference standard questionnaire. In the longitudinal study 546\653 (84 %) of subjects completed the diet questionnaire, and had blood cholesterol measured on two occasions, 3 months apart. Main outcome measures. In the cross-sectional study, the simple scores of total fat intake (Fat Intake Score) and P : S ratio (Unsaturated Score) were compared with the daily intakes of total fat and P : S ratio

The relative validity of a short Dutch questionnaire as a means to categorize adults and adolescents to total and saturated fat intake

“…Only Kristal et al (1990a,b) found comparable, and reasonably high correlations for both absolute intake as well as percentage energy from fat. The study of Kinlay et al (1997) among youngsters showed acceptable correlations for percentage energy from fat and saturated fat for this age group. The low correlation between the fat score and percentage energy from fat or from saturated fat in the present study, may be explained by the very high correlation between total fat intake and total saturated fat: r 0.95 for adults and 0.67 for adolescents) (as in Gray-Donald et al, 1997).…”

“…A literature search of publications since 1980 reveals that there have been a number of earlier validation studies of fat intake questionnaires with less than 50 questions (Table 8). The correlations between the results of the short instrument and a reference instrument found in these studies indicate that the Fat list in the present study seems to categorize adult individuals according to absolute total and saturated fat intake as well as or better than other short fat intake questionnaires (Block et al ., 1989; Coates et al ., 1995; Heller et al ., 1981; Pietinen et al ., 1988; Kristal et al ., 1990a,b;Connor et al ., 1992; Van Assema et al ., 1992; Gray‐Donald et al ., 1997; Kinlay et al ., 1997; Retzlaff et al ., 1997; Shannon et al ., 1997; Persson et al ., 1998). We could find only one publication of a validation of a short questionnaire that included the important subpopulation of youngsters (Kinlay et al ., 1997).…”

“…(1990a,b) found comparable, and reasonably high correlations for both absolute intake as well as percentage energy from fat. The study of Kinlay et al . (1997) among youngsters showed acceptable correlations for percentage energy from fat and saturated fat for this age group.…”

“…Most other studies, however, do not report separate results for subgroups. A few studies have assessed correlations separately for males and females (Beerman & Dittus, 1994; Kinlay et al ., 1997; Retzlaff et al ., 1997). The differences in correlations these studies found between males and females were not as large as the differences we found in our study.…”