Relevance of the semi-quantitative short Food Frequency Questionnaire in assessment of calcium consumption by female inhabitants of Zabrze over the age of 55 years (the Silesia Osteo Active Study)

Abstract

Summary In the study, we compare two methods used to assess the effects of nourishment on the bone status. Statistical analysis demonstrated a moderate conformity of both methods. Short Food Frequency Questionnaires can be used as short medical screening tool for calcium intake among women over 55 years of life. Introduction Osteoporosis is a civilisation disease, the development of which is, among others, controlled and affected by diet. The factors which promote the health of bones include calcium, vitamin D, vitamin K, phosphorus, magnesium, and protein. A number of nutritional epidemiology methods can be applied to assess the effects of nourishment on the bone status, e.g. Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) in its full or short (sFFQ) version or 3-day food record (3DFR). Both methods are known and widely used tools. Methods In the reported study, we attempted to compare and assess the sFFQ and 3DFR tools. Both methods were employed to examine 156 women, the majority of whom presented with an overweight-indicating BMI. An analysis of sFFQ data brought an observation that most of the studied patients (33.3%) consumed milk once a day. Results Based on 3DFR and sFFQ, we compared the measured volumes of consumed calcium which were 557.8 mg/day and 880.7 mg/day, respectively. The Cohen’s kappa calculator was used for a diagnostic evaluation of both tools; the kappa index was 0.5047, demonstrating a moderate conformity of both methods. In addition, sensitivity and specificity indices were calculated, revealing the values of 97% and 12%, respectively. Conclusions sFFQ can be used as a short medical screening. It is suggested to use both the 3DFR, conducted by the patient, and sFFQ, as a complementary method. It is necessary to continue this type of studies and to standardise the methods of nutritional status assessment with regard to selected groups.

Development, Validation, and Reproducibility of Food Group-Based Frequency Questionnaires for Clinical Use in Brazil: A Pre-Hypertension and Hypertension Diet Assessment

“…Most of the food groups reached acceptable validity in comparison to other studies. Bredin et al assessed the validity of a short FFQ developed to assess non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients [39]. Similar to our study, the intake of fruits and vegetables was of great importance due to the study participants' health condition, and both reached fair correlations [39].…”

“…Using food groups and inquiring only about the frequency of consumption expedited the dietary intake assessment without causing flaw to the accuracy of most food groups; so many of the items in the 30-day and 7-day FG-FFQ had the same average correlation. This aspect of the FG-FFQs was corroborated by other studies that proposed FFQs with a reduced number of food items to assess the dietary intake in specific health conditions [39,40]. In our study, the list included nine ungrouped foods to cover food items that primarily represent the Brazilian population's food intake [29].…”

Validation of a six-item dietary calcium screening tool among HIV patients in China

“…Finally, we observed that the reproducibility of the six-item tool had better performance than its relative validity against the FFQ. While we cannot predict if a larger sample size would yield stronger analysis, our observation may be attributable to the inherent weakness of brief dietary intake screening tools, as several other studies with larger sample sizes have drawn similar conclusions (52)(53)(54) .…”

Validity and Reproducibility of Food Group-Based Food Frequency Questionnaires in Assessing Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Habits among Chinese Middle-School Students

“…Owing to the resource-intensive nature of dietary survey methods and the indispensability of dietary information for medical research, food group-based food frequency questionnaires (FG-FFQs) have become popular. Notably, FG-FFQs focus on a group of foods that share certain characteristics (such as high sugar, high fat, and high salt) or are associated with certain health outcomes [ 11 , 12 , 13 ], to explore the relationship between foods and hypertension, cancer, chronic kidney disease, and others [ 12 ]. Added sugar is the culprit for the health risks of SSBs [ 14 ], the contents of which in various SSB types fluctuate within a relatively stable range owing to its flavor, and it can be considered a food group (FG).…”