Abstract
Our aim was to validate a 16-item food intake questionnaire (16-FIQ) and create an easy to use method to estimate patients’ nutrient intake in primary health care. Participants (52 men, 25 women) completed a 7-day food record and a 16-FIQ. Food and nutrient intakes were calculated and compared using Spearman correlation. Further, nutrient intakes were compared using kappa-statistics and exact and opposite agreement of intake tertiles. The results indicated that the 16-FIQ reliably categorized individuals according to their nutrient intakes. Methods to estimate nutrient intake based on the answers given in 16-FIQ were created. In linear regression models nutrient intake estimates from the food records were used as the dependent variables and sum variables derived from the 16-FIQ were used as the independent variables. Valid regression models were created for the energy proportion of fat, saturated fat, and sucrose and the amount of fibre (g), vitamin C (mg), iron (mg), and vitamin D (μg) intake. The 16-FIQ is a valid method for estimating nutrient intakes in group level. In addition, the 16-FIQ could be a useful tool to facilitate identification of people in need of dietary counselling and to monitor the effect of counselling in primary health care.
Highlights
A healthy diet, physically active lifestyle and maintaining normal weight constitute the cornerstones of prevention of several chronic diseases
The participants were asked to fill in the 16-item food intake questionnaire and they were advised how to keep food record for 7 days starting the day after the health check-up
Nutrient Intakes Estimated from the 7-day Food Records
Summary
A healthy diet, physically active lifestyle and maintaining normal weight constitute the cornerstones of prevention of several chronic diseases. Lifestyle counselling of high-risk individuals has been shown to prevent e.g., the development of type 2 diabetes in a research setting [1,2]. Validated tools which identify high-risk individuals could facilitate the allocation of available health care resources in most effective ways [3]. Dietary counselling should be individualized and based on clients’ former diet. The dietary quality can be assessed using food records, food frequency questionnaires and for some nutrients, with biomarkers. Food records and comprehensive food frequency questionnaires are time-consuming and require sophisticated data management and biomarkers can be too costly, these methods are not as such suitable to be used in primary health care [4]
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