Abstract
The aim of the study was to analyse a designed brief iron dietary intake questionnaire based on a food frequency assessment (IRONIC-FFQ—IRON Intake Calculation-Food Frequency Questionnaire), including the assessment of validity and reproducibility in a group of 75 Polish women aged 20–30 years. Participants conducted 3-day dietary records and filled in the IRONIC-FFQ twice (FFQ1—directly after the dietary record and FFQ2—6 weeks later). The analysis included an assessment of validity (comparison with the results of the 3-day dietary record) and of reproducibility (comparison of the results obtained twice—FFQ1 and FFQ2). In the analysis of validity, the share of individuals correctly classified into tertiles was over 50% (weighted κ of 0.36), while analysis of correlation revealed correlation coefficients of almost 0.5. In the assessment of reproducibility, almost 80% of individuals were correctly classified and less than 3% were misclassified (weighted κ of 0.73), while a correlation coefficient higher than 0.85 was obtained. Both in the assessment of validity and of reproducibility, a Bland–Altman index of 6.7% was recorded (93.3% of compared pairs of results were in the acceptable range, attributed to differences within ± 2SD limit). Validation of the IRONIC-FFQ revealed a satisfactory level of validity and positively validated reproducibility.
Highlights
Anemia has been indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the main diet-related health risks, while iron deficiency was stated to be among the most important contributors to the global burden of the disease [1]
A 50% reduction of anemia in women of reproductive age is formulated as the WHO’s global target for the year 2025 [5], since the highest frequency of anemia is recorded in women of reproductive age and in pre-school children [6]
The observed iron intake for the majority of the analysed group was stated to be adequate, since for each applied assessment over 60% of the group was characterised by intake that was higher than the Estimated Average Requirement level of 8.0 mg a day
Summary
Anemia has been indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the main diet-related health risks, while iron deficiency was stated to be among the most important contributors to the global burden of the disease [1]. It is indicated that about 50% of anemia cases is attributed to iron deficiency [2]. This is a global problem, as a general prevalence of 23%–27% is recorded for anemia, which corresponds to 1620 million affected individuals [3]. It is supposed that if anemia prevalence exceeded 20%, some degree of iron deficiency would be present in about. A reduction of anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age would improve their health and the health of their offspring, as the results of Nutrients 2017, 9, 199; doi:10.3390/nu9030199 www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients
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