The Possibility of Applying the Vitamin D Brief Food Frequency Questionnaire as a Tool for a Country with No Vitamin D Data in Food Composition Tables

Abstract

Although the role of vitamin D is well known, the possibility of assessing its intake may be constricted in countries with no vitamin D data in food composition tables, as in the case of Croatia. The aim of the presented study was to adjust the VIDEO-FFQ (Vitamin D Estimation Only—Food Frequency Questionnaire), previously validated in Poland, to the Croatian population and to assess the validity and reproducibility of the adjusted Cro-VIDEO-FFQ (Croatian—VIDEO-FFQ). The study involved a group of Croatian women aged 20–30 and the Polish questionnaire was adjusted for a population due to similarities of the nutritional habits between countries. 106 individuals were recruited and 63 completed all the stages of the study. Participants conducted a 3-day dietary record and filled out the Cro-VIDEO-FFQ1 (first stage), as well as the same questionnaire (Cro-VIDEO-FFQ2) 6 weeks after (second stage). The following vitamin D intakes were observed in the studied group: 1.9 µg (0.2–8.0 µg) for 3-day dietary record, 3.3 µg (1.1–10.6 µg) for Cro-VIDEO-FFQ1, 3.6 µg (1.4–7.8 µg) for Cro-VIDEO-FFQ2. The Bland-Altman indexes in assessment of validity and reproducibility were 4.8% and 6.3%, respectively, with mean differences of 0.55 µg and 0.12 µg, as well as limits of agreement −0.91–2.01 µg and −0.44–0.69 µg. The kappa coefficient indicated a fair agreement for validity (0.21) and substantial for reproducibility (0.62), while correlations were significant (p = 0.0027, r = 0.37 for validity; p < 0.0001, r = 0.80 for reproducibility). It was observed that VIDEO-FFQ may be adjusted as a simple tool to assess vitamin D intake in a population with no vitamin D data in food composition tables, while Cro-VIDEO-FFQ may be a valid tool for nutritional assessment in Croatia.

Dietary Health-Related Risk Factors for Women in the Polish and Croatian Population Based on the Nutritional Behaviors of Junior Health Professionals

“…The observations correspond with inadequate intake of calcium, observed for Polish [82] and Croatian young women [83]; however, some studies reported higher intake of calcium in Croatia [84]. Furthermore, the inadequate intake of vitamin D is commonly stated for both Polish [85] and Croatian [86] young women [47].…”

“…Subsequently, to obtain a comparable analysis of the diet, independent from the applied databases, the same tables of nutritional value of food products and dishes were applied for both groups. The Polish tables were selected; therefore, the dietary records obtained for the Croatian group were translated to Polish, as in the previously conducted own study [47]. The translation was independently conducted in two stages: two English-speaking Croatian dietitians translated them from Croatian to English (while describing the specific dishes and providing the photographs of typical Croatian products and information about recipes, if needed), and afterwards two English-speaking Polish dietitians independently translated Croatian dietary records from English to Polish (verifying all the doubts with Croatian dietitians, if needed).…”

Validation of Vitamin D-Specific Food Frequency Questionnaire against Food Records for Qatari Women

“…The average mean difference in vitamin D intake of the FFQ and three-day FR was 142 IU (285 IU for FFQ and 143 IU for FR). Similarly, a study by Glabaska et al [32] assessed two FFQs against a three-day FR. Vitamin D intake obtained from FFQ-1 and FFQ-2 were 132 IU ad 144 IU respectively and 76 IU in the three-day FR.…”

“…This allows for participants to recollect and report foods consumed over a specific period of time when compared to the FR, which focus on a limited number of days prospectively. This prospective food intake reporting for a limited number of days does not guarantee that foods containing vitamin D will be consumed within those days [32].…”

Vitamin D Intake in a Population-Based Sample of Young Polish Women, Its Major Sources and the Possibility of Meeting the Recommendations

“…The main part of the questionnaire was based on the brief FFQ to assess vitamin D intake from food that was previously validated in a group of Polish young women (Vitamin D Estimation Only—Food Frequency Questionnaire (VIDEO-FFQ)) [ 47 ]. This is a quick and convenient tool of high validity and reproducibility, which was observed for the Polish [ 47 ] and Croatian [ 48 ] population, which enables assessing vitamin D intake from food in large populations. To date, it has been used to assess vitamin D intake in various studies [ 49 , 50 ] and is included in the Register of Validated Short Dietary Assessment Instruments by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—National Cancer Institute of United States of America [ 51 ].…”