Validity of an FFQ to measure nutrient and food intakes in Tanzania

Abstract

Objective: FFQ are often used to estimate food and nutrient intakes to rank individuals by their level of intake. We evaluated the relative validity of a semiquantitative FFQ created for use in Tanzania by comparing it with two 24 h diet recalls. Design: We measured relative validity of the FFQ with deattenuated energyadjusted rank correlations for nutrients, deattenuated rank correlations for food groups, and performed a cross-classification analysis of energy-adjusted nutrient quartiles using percentage of agreement and Bland-Altman analysis. Setting: Interviews were conducted in 2014 in participants' homes in Ukonga, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Subjects: We surveyed 317 adults aged 40 years or older from the general public. Results: Deattenuated energy-adjusted rank correlation coefficients of nutrients ranged from −0·03 for riboflavin to 0·41 for percentage of energy from carbohydrates, with a median correlation of 0·21. Coefficients for food groups ranged from 0·00 for root vegetables to 0·51 for alcohol, with a median of 0·35. Relative to the average of the two 24 h diet recalls, the FFQ overestimated energy intake and intakes of all nutrients and food groups, other than tea, with ratios among nutrients ranging from 1·34 for SFA to 7·08 for vitamin A; and among food groups from 0·92 for tea to 9·00 for fruit. The percentage of participants classified into the same nutrient intake quartile ranged from 23 % for SFA to 32 % for both niacin and pantothenic acid, with a median of 28 %. Conclusions: The FFQ performed moderately well in urban Tanzanian adults.

Development and Validation of Food Frequency Questionnaire for Food and Nutrient Intake of Adults in Butajira, Southern Ethiopia

“…Overestimation in the present study was moderate for intakes of energy (367.9 kcal), protein (10.5 g) and carbohydrate (77.6 g) and slight for intakes total fat (4.4 g) compared to other validation studies conducted using 24-HRs as their reference method (8,(10)(11)(12)(13). Overestimation can be attributed to the subject's tendency to overestimate their actual intake when they are asked to recall the frequency of a large number of foods consumed in a FFQ.…”

“…The lower correlation coe cients for iron and vitamin intakes observed in our study is not uncommon in FFQ validation studies (8,10,11,13,18). A meta-analysis of FFQ validation studies showed that pooled correlation coe cients of nutrient intakes ( total fat, protein, carbohydrate, alcohol, calcium, iron and vitamins) were lower for FFQ validated against 24-HRs rather than food record (17).…”

“…We found that the FFQ overestimated energy and nutrient intakes relative to the average of the two 24-HRs recalls. Overestimation is a common issue reported in various validation studies (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15).…”

Effects of school-based physical activity and multi-micronutrient supplementation intervention on growth, health and well-being of schoolchildren in three African countries: the KaziAfya cluster randomised controlled trial protocol with a 2 × 2 factorial design

“…Dietary intake information Information on dietary intake will be obtained from the parents/guardians to determine the adequacy of child's intake of macro-and micronutrients. Dietary intake of children will be assessed using a culturally sensitive food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for each country [78,79]. The FFQ will be administered to the child's carer at baseline.…”

Differences in eating patterns of middle school students living in urban and rural areas located in the Masovian Voivodeship

“…Recurrence of the research results with use of this questionnaire, lets us to consider it as useful measurement tool, which is reliable source of information about frequency and quantity of food customarily consumed [24]. That's why in foreign literature similar questionnaires constitute commonly used research tool [1,5,14,25].…”