Reproducibility of a Short Food Frequency Questionnaire for Japanese General Population

Abstract

There has been increasing interest in lifestyle, including dietary habits, as an etiological factor for chronic diseases. To establish strategies for lifestyle alterations, we need to adopt a comprehensive approach for evaluating dietary habits, alcohol consumption, smoking, physical exercise, and stress. However, Japanese dietary patterns differ from those of Western developed countries, due to its distinctive culture, climate, food supply system, cooking methods, and standard serving sizes. 1-3 Japanese cuisine is rich in variety; for example, the major contributors of protein are rice, soybeans, and fish rather than meat and eggs. Moreover, people often enjoy not only Japanese foods but also Chinese, American, Italian, and French foods.

Association between dietary calcium and vitamin D intake and cervical carcinogenesis among Japanese women

“…The main contributors of calcium among Japanese are milk, yogurt, tofu, bone-edible small fish, potato, green leafy vegetables and light-colored vegetables, whereas those of vitamin D are fish and bone-edible small fish. Validity and reproducibility of the FFQ were acceptable (Tokudome et al, 2005;Imaeda et al, 2007). De-attenuated, log-transformed and energy-adjusted Pearson's correlation coefficients for calcium and vitamin D were 0.59 and 0.40 for females (Tokudome et al, 2005).…”

“…In one study, the prevalence of daily calcium and vitamin D supplement use among Japanese women was 3.3 and 2.2%, respectively (Imai et al, 2006), and thus a lack of precise information on supplemental calcium and vitamin D intake might have affected our results. Third, although we used a validated FFQ to evaluate calcium and vitamin D intake (semiquantitative FFQ) (Tokudome et al, 2005;Imaeda et al, 2007), underevaluation of intake may have occurred. Nevertheless, correlation coefficients for calcium and vitamin D were satisfactory, and sufficient to warrant the observed results.…”

Associations of <i>apolipoprotein A5 (APOA5), glucokinase (GCK)</i> and <i>glucokinase regulatory protein (GCKR)</i> polymorphisms and lifestyle factors with the risk of dyslipidemia and dysglycemia in Japanese — a cross-sectional data from the J-MICC Study

“…Alcohol consumption of each type of beverage was determined by average number of drinks per day, and then converted into the Japanese sake unit; 'gou' (180 mL), which is equivalent to 23g of ethanol. Intakes of energy and macronutrients were estimated based on responses to a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), whose validity and reproducibility to estimate nutrient intakes have been well tested and confirmed [15][16][17][18]. The correlation coefficients between the FFQ and 3-day food records were 0.49 for energy, 0.61 for %energy from fat and 0.86 for %energy from carbohydrate in men.…”

Significant interaction between <i>RETN</i> -420 <i>G/G</i> genotype and lower BMI on decreased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Japanese — the J-MICC Study [Rapid Communication]

“…Missing data were considered independent of the exposure-outcome (E-O) relationship. Intakes of energy, carbohydrate and fat were estimated using a food-frequency questionnaire [10,11], and the proportions of energy from carbohydrate and fat were calculated as energy from each nutrient divided by total energy intake (shown in percentage: % energy). Smoking status, alcohol consumption and BMI were assessed based on the questionnaire.…”