A Consistent Database of Nutrient Intakes 1978‐Present Can Improve Analyses of Consumption Trends

Abstract

For decades, the Federal Government has conducted nationally representative surveys of Americans' food and nutrient intakes. Major surveys used for dietary trend analyses include the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s 1977–78 Nationwide Food Consumption Survey (NFCS) and the 1989–91 and 1994–96 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII), as well as the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)' National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). These surveys are used by researchers and policymakers to assess long‐term trends, yet methodological changes such as changes in nutrient databases can have important influences on results. The dietary references (i.e., nutrient values per 100 grams) utilized in the 1977–78 NFCS and 1989–91 CSFII differed from the 1994‐present databases, and did not contain some key nutrients like sodium. We link current dietary reference values to the 1977–78 NFCS and 1989–91 CSFII databases to create a consistent database that includes all the nutrients that can be analyzed today. We present examples of how the use of a consistent database can affect trend data using 1977–78 NFCS, the 1989–91 CSFII, and the continuous waves of NHANES 2003‐present. We describe the database we created to conduct these analyses, which will be publicly available upon completion.Support or Funding InformationSupported by U.S.Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service Cooperative Research Agreement No. 58‐4000‐6‐0009.