Abstract
BackgroundIn Japan, large-scale epidemiological studies on starch and sugar intake are scarce, mainly due to a lack of a suitable assessment tool. We examined the relative validity of two widely-used dietary assessment questionnaires for Japanese adults, the comprehensive Diet History Questionnaire (DHQ) and the brief DHQ (BDHQ), for estimating the intake of starch and 10 types of sugars: total sugar, sucrose, maltose, lactose, trehalose, glucose, fructose, galactose, and added and free sugars.MethodsA total of 92 women and 92 men completed 4-day weighed dietary records (DRs) besides the DHQ and BDHQ in each of the four seasons. For each method, starch and sugar intake was calculated according to a recently developed food composition database on starch and sugars for Japanese food items.ResultsFor most of the carbohydrate variables examined, the median energy-adjusted intake derived from the first DHQ and BDHQ (DHQ1 and BDHQ1, respectively) significantly differed from those derived from the 16-day DRs in both sexes. Spearman correlation coefficients between the 16-day DRs and DHQ1 were acceptable (≥0.31) for all variables (0.31–0.67), except for maltose and trehalose in women (≤0.29). For BDHQ1, the correlations were also acceptable for all variables (0.32–0.64), except for maltose (≤0.26) and galactose (≤0.06). Similar results were observed for the mean of four DHQs and BDHQs.ConclusionsThis study indicated a reasonable ranking ability of DHQ and BDHQ for the intake of starch and most sugars examined, despite a poor ability to estimate the intake at the both group and individual levels.
Highlights
In Western countries, many studies have reported the validity of these questionnaires for the intake of carbohydrate subtypes, such as starch,[13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20] total sugar,[13,14,15,16,17,19,20,21,22] and sucrose,[15,17,18,23,24,25,26] studies on the validity of intake of added sugar[27] and saccharides, including lactose,[15,17,24] glucose,[15] fructose,[15,17] and galactose,[15] are limited
The DHQ1 on average overestimated the intake of sucrose, added sugar, and free sugar but underestimated intake of maltose and glucose (0.08–0.4%E) compared with the dietary records (DRs)
For the BDHQ1, starch intake was overestimated in both sexes (3.9%E in women and 1.8%E in men), whereas the intake of maltose, trehalose, glucose, galactose, added sugar, and free sugar were underestimated (0.009–1.8%E)
Summary
Dietary assessment questionnaires are widely used in largescale epidemiological studies because of their feasibility and low cost.[12] In Western countries, many studies have reported the validity of these questionnaires for the intake of carbohydrate subtypes, such as starch,[13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20] total sugar,[13,14,15,16,17,19,20,21,22] and sucrose,[15,17,18,23,24,25,26] studies on the validity of intake of added sugar[27] and saccharides, including lactose,[15,17,24] glucose,[15] fructose,[15,17] and galactose,[15] are limited. We examined the relative validity of two widely-used dietary assessment questionnaires for Japanese adults, the comprehensive Diet History Questionnaire (DHQ) and the brief DHQ (BDHQ), for estimating the intake of starch and 10 types of sugars: total sugar, sucrose, maltose, lactose, trehalose, glucose, fructose, galactose, and added and free sugars
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