Reproducibility and Validity of a Food Frequency Questionnaire for Dietary Assessment in Adolescents in a Self-Reported Way.

Leyre Notario-Barandiaran,Laura Torres-Collado,Carmen Freire,Sandra González-Palacios,Jesús Vioque,Manuela García-De-La-Hera,Mariana F Fernández,Laura Mª Compañ-Gabucio,Marina Molina,Antonio Mundo

doi:10.3390/nu12072081

Abstract

Tools to assess diet in a reliable and efficient way are needed, particularly in children and adolescents. In this study, we assess the reproducibility and validity of a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) among adolescents in Spain. We analyzed data of 51 male adolescents aged 15–17 years from a prospective birth cohort study. Participants answered the FFQ twice in a self-administered way over a 12-month period. Reproducibility was assessed by comparing nutrient and food intakes from the FFQs, and validity by comparing nutrient intakes from the average of two FFQs and the average of two 24-Hour Dietary Recalls obtained in the period. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated. The average of reproducibility correlation coefficients for food group intakes was 0.33, with the highest correlation for vegetable intake (r = 0.81); and the average for nutrient intake was 0.32, with the highest coefficients for α- and β-carotene (r = 0.65). Validity correlation coefficients ranged from 0.07 for carbohydrates to 0.53 for dietary fiber. The average of the validity correlation coefficients was r = 0.32. This study suggests that our FFQ may be a useful tool for assessing dietary intake of most nutrient and food groups among Spanish male adolescents in a self-administered way, despite reproducibility and, particularly validity, being low for some nutrients and food groups.

Highlights

Adolescence is a transitional stage of development from childhood to adulthood in which numerous biological and behavioral changes occur
In accordance with the of we have previously developed and validated several Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) for dietary assessment in pregnantneeds women the follow-up phases the of study, the aim of this was to evaluate the of reproducibility and their children at theofages
When nutrient intakes were adjusted for total energy, correlation coefficients tended to decrease for most nutrients, ranging from r = 0.11 for zinc to r = 0.65 for α- and β-carotene; the average of energy-adjusted coefficient correlations was 0.36

Summary

Introduction

Adolescence is a transitional stage of development from childhood to adulthood in which numerous biological and behavioral changes occur. Adolescents may be confronted with high-risk nutritional behaviors such as restrictive or excessive diets, or health problems such as overweight and obesity, most of them closely related to diet [1,2,3]. Precise and accurate dietary assessment methods to investigate diet-disease relationships in adolescence are needed. Nutrients 2020, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW in most epidemiologic andbeen populations, mainly due convenient to the ease of administration, and frequency questionnairestudies (FFQ) has considered the most dietary assessmentcoding method in processing FFQs have been validated in many different populations most epidemiologic studies and populations, mainly due to the ease of administration, coding and worldwide,(ref

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