Comparability of Dietary Data Collection Programs for U.S. Adults, 2007‐2011

Abstract

National public health goals include increasing daily fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption, and continuous surveillance is critical for assessing progress towards this goal. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS), and the USDA Food Availability Database (USDA FAD) are routinely used to monitor F&V consumption of adults at the national level, but the discrepancy between the data generated from these programs has not been investigated. The objectives of this study are to 1) estimate the daily per capita consumption of F&V from each of these programs, 2) compare estimates of consumption of individual F&V by processing form using statistical agreement tests, and 3) compare estimates of consumption of F&V groups using descriptive means comparison. Data were collected for 2007‐2011, and adjusted to reflect F&V consumption among individuals 蠅18 years of age, measured in mean daily per capita cup‐equivalents. The Bland‐Altman method and ordinary least products regression indicated proportional bias but not fixed bias. Descriptive means comparison revealed similar consumption estimates between some programs for certain F&V groups, but these similarities were not consistent, and overall variability was apparent. These results indicate that these dietary data collection programs do not yield similar results for daily per capita F&V consumption among adults in the U.S. Caution should be exercised when reporting progress toward achieving national public health nutrition goals related to F&V consumption. The authors report no source of funding for this study.