Validation of the Telephone-Administered Version of the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) Questionnaire.

Maria João Gregório,Pedro S Coelho,Miguel A Martínez-González,Ana M Rodrigues,Sara S Dias,Rute D De Sousa,Carla Lopes,Pedro Graça,Jorge M Mendes,Helena Canhão,Jaime C Branco,Clara Salvador

doi:10.3390/nu12051511

Abstract

A 14-Item Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) questionnaire was developed and validated in face-to-face interviews, but not via telephone. The aims of this study were to evaluate the validity and reliability of a telephone-administered version of the MEDAS as well as to validate the Portuguese version of the MEDAS questionnaire. A convenience community-based sample of adults (n = 224) participated in a three-stage survey. First, trained researchers administered MEDAS via a telephone. Second, the Portuguese version of Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), and MEDAS were administered in a semi-structured face-to-face interview. Finally, MEDAS was again administered via telephone. The telephone-administered MEDAS questionnaire was compared with the face-to-face-version using several metrics. The telephone-administered MEDAS was significantly correlated with the face-to-face-administered MEDAS [r = 0.805, p < 0.001; interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.803, p < 0.001] and showed strong agreement (k = 0.60). The MEDAS scores that were obtained in the first and second telephone interviews were significantly correlated (r = 0.661, p < 0.001; ICC = 0.639, p < 0.001). The overall agreement between the Portuguese version of MEDAS and the FFQ-derived Mediterranean diet adherence score had a Cohen’s k = 0.39. The telephone-administered version of MEDAS is a valid tool for assessing the adherence to the Mediterranean diet and acquiring data for large population-based studies.

Highlights

Food consumption assessment is one of the main challenges for nutritional epidemiology
The sample size was calculated based on the mean difference between the Mediterranean diet adherence score that was obtained by the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) questionnaire and the Mediterranean diet adherence score obtained by the Food Frequency Questionnaire
The association between the Mediterranean diet adherence score obtained from the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and that obtained from the MEDAS questionnaires were calculated, and absolute agreement of individual component scoring between the MEDAS and the FFQ was determined while using k statistics

Summary

Introduction

Food consumption assessment is one of the main challenges for nutritional epidemiology. The more closed to “gold standard” method for food consumption assessment involves multiple food diaries [1,2]. The utilization of these assessment tools is expensive and time-consuming, in terms of both data collection and analysis. Diet quality indices have been proposed as alternative tools that can be used to assess population dietary habits, and several such indices have been previously validated [3,4,5,6,7,8]. The Mediterranean diet has been associated with several health outcomes, namely showing risk reduction on cardiovascular disease in high-risk individuals [9]. The evidence regarding the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet is consistent [9,10]

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