Relative Validity and Reproducibility of a Food Frequency Questionnaire to Assess Nutrients and Food Groups of Relevance to the Gut Microbiota in Young Children.

Claudia Leong,Elizabeth Fleming,Lucy Kennedy,Renee Yu,Sonya Cameron,Robyn Moore,Ewa Szymlek-Gay,Gerald Tannock,Anne-Louise Heath,Jillian Haszard,Rachael Taylor,Li Chee,Harriet Carter

doi:10.3390/nu10111627

Claudia Leong, Elizabeth Fleming + Show 11 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10111627

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Abstract

Dietary fiber is an important nutrient for the gut microbiota, with different fiber fractions having different effects. The aim of this study was to determine the relative validity and reproducibility of a food frequency questionnaire (EAT5 FFQ) for measuring intake of fiber, and low and high fiber foods, in studies examining diet and gut microbiota in young children. One hundred parents of 5-year old children completed the 123-item EAT5 FFQ on two occasions four weeks apart. A 3-day weighed diet record (WDR) was completed on non-consecutive days between FFQ appointments. Mean correlations between the (randomly chosen) FFQ and WDR were acceptable for nutrient and food group intakes (r = 0.34 and r = 0.41 respectively). Gross misclassification was below chance (12.5%) for quartiles of nutrient (mean 5.7%) and food group (mean 5.1%) intake. ‘Absolute values for surrogate categories’ suggested the FFQ clearly differentiated between highest and lowest quartiles for all nutrients and food groups tested. Mean correlations between repeat administrations of the FFQ suggested very good reproducibility for nutrients (r = 0.83) and food groups (r = 0.80). The EAT5 FFQ appears to be an appropriate tool for investigating the intake of nutrients and food groups of relevance to the gut microbiota, and is the first FFQ validated to measure total, soluble and insoluble non-starch polysaccharide intakes in young children.

Highlights

A rapidly expanding literature suggests that the gut microbiota may have beneficial or harmful impacts on health [1,2]
The EAT5 Food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) assigned children to correct quartiles of intake well, with very few children being grossly misclassified into the opposite quartile of intake, and was able to clearly differentiate between low and high intakes identified in the weighed diet record (WDR)
It is difficult to compare our results directly with the literature given that no FFQs have been validated to measure nutrients and foods of relevance to the gut microbiota in children

Summary

Introduction

A rapidly expanding literature suggests that the gut microbiota may have beneficial or harmful impacts on health [1,2]. Because different classes (soluble, insoluble) or fractions (e.g., arabinoxylan from whole grains, pectin from fruits, and cellulose from vegetables) of fiber appear to impact gut microbiota in different ways [7,8,9,10], appropriate dietary assessment techniques must be used to improve understanding of how diet influences the microbiota and subsequent health outcomes. 24-h recalls are generally considered gold standard methods of dietary assessment [11], they entail considerable respondent and researcher burden, and do not directly assess ‘usual’ intake. Food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) have lower respondent burden, estimate usual intake, and can be used in larger studies examining the long-term effects of diet on the gut microbiota. The validity of any new FFQ must be determined in order to ensure that it adequately measures the nutrients of interest in the relevant population [12]

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