Abstract
BackgroundDietary questionnaires currently available which can assess the habitual diet are timely, costly, or not adapted well to the modern diet; thus, there is a need for a shorter food frequency e-Questionnaire (FFeQ) adapted to Western diets, in order to properly estimate energy and macronutrient intakes or rank individuals according to food and nutrient intakes.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate the relative validity and reproducibility of a 30-minute and 44-item FFeQ in a sample of adults obtained from the general population.MethodsA sample of French adults was recruited through social media and an advertising campaign. A total of 223 volunteers completed the FFeQ twice at one-year intervals and were included in the reproducibility study. During that interval, 92 participants completed three-to-six 24-hour recalls and were included in the validity study. Nutrient and dietary intakes were computed for all validity and reproducibility participants. The level of agreement between the two methods was evaluated for nutrient and food group intakes using classification into quintiles of daily intake, correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman plots.ResultsFor relative validity, correlation coefficients ranged from 0.09 to 0.88 (unadjusted correlation coefficients, median: 0.48) and 0.02 to 0.68 (deattenuated and energy adjusted correlation coefficients, median: 0.50) for food group and nutrient intakes, respectively. The median proportion of subjects classified into the same or adjacent quintile was 73% and 66% for food and nutrient intakes, respectively. Bland-Altman plots showed good agreement across the range of intakes. Regarding reproducibility, intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.33 to 0.72 (median: 0.60) and 0.55 to 0.73 (median: 0.64), for food and nutrient intakes, respectively.ConclusionsThe FFeQ showed acceptable validity and reproducibility in a sample of adults based on their food and nutrient intakes. The FFeQ is a promising and low-cost tool that can be used in large-scale online epidemiological studies or clinical routines and could be integrated into evidence-based smartphone apps for assessing diet components.
Highlights
A healthy lifestyle, characterized by an adequate, balanced diet combined with regular physical activity, is one of the determinants for good health [1]
The food frequency e-Questionnaire (FFeQ) showed acceptable validity and reproducibility in a sample of adults based on their food and nutrient intakes
As previously described [8], a consortium of six cohort studies (E3N [9], E4N [10], CKD-REIN [11], i-Share [12], Elfe [13] and Psy-COH) was established to create a unique Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) that could quickly assess the habitual diet in several populations: adults, the elderly, adolescents, students, patients with mental disorders, and patients with chronic kidney disease
Summary
A healthy lifestyle, characterized by an adequate, balanced diet combined with regular physical activity, is one of the determinants for good health [1]. Among the many available tools that evaluate individual dietary intakes, the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) has been frequently used in nutritional epidemiology studies since the 1980s [4,5,6]. As previously described [8], a consortium of six cohort studies (E3N [9], E4N [10], CKD-REIN [11], i-Share [12], Elfe [13] and Psy-COH) was established to create a unique Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) that could quickly assess the habitual diet in several populations: adults, the elderly, adolescents, students, patients with mental disorders, and patients with chronic kidney disease. Dietary questionnaires currently available which can assess the habitual diet are timely, costly, or not adapted well to the modern diet; there is a need for a shorter food frequency e-Questionnaire (FFeQ) adapted to Western diets, in order to properly estimate energy and macronutrient intakes or rank individuals according to food and nutrient intakes
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