Abstract
The measurement of vitamin D nutritional status through dietary assessment is cost effective. Food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) is usually validated against food records (FR). There is no vitamin D-specific FFQ for Qatar population. The objective of this study was to develop a vitamin D-centric FFQ and validate FFQ against three-day FR for Qatar population. A quantitative FFQ based on vitamin D containing foods consumed in Qatar was developed. Vitamin D contents of foods were gathered from food labels and food composition tables from the United States Department of Agriculture. A vitamin D content database was developed for this study purpose. Dietary intakes while using FFQ and three-day FR were collected from 62 women. Vitamin D intakes from FFQ and three-day FR were validated with quartile comparison and Bland-Altman (BA) tests. BA plot showed an agreement between FFQ and three-day FR vitamin D intakes. The BA index was 3.23%, which is <5%, a commonly used standard for validation. Quartile correlation showed that ≈73% of subjects were within the same or adjacent quartile. In conclusion, an agreement was found between vitamin D intakes from FFQ and three-day FR in Qatari women. More studies are needed to validate the vitamin D-specific FFQ in Qatari population at large.
Highlights
Vitamin D is a lipophilic nutrient that was obtained from the diet and vitamin D supplements. vitamin D is synthesized endogenously in the skin when exposed to Sun’s UV-B light, the amount of vitamin D that is synthesized in this process is highly variable and affected by several factors, such as latitude, time of the day, skin tone, amount of clothing worn, and use of sunblock lotions [1,2,3]
90% of the population in Qatar suffers from vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency [5]
If the 95% of the differences fall within the 95% limits of agreement (LOA), it is considered to be a good agreement
Summary
Vitamin D is a lipophilic nutrient that was obtained from the diet and vitamin D supplements. vitamin D is synthesized endogenously in the skin when exposed to Sun’s UV-B light, the amount of vitamin D that is synthesized in this process is highly variable and affected by several factors, such as latitude, time of the day, skin tone, amount of clothing worn, and use of sunblock lotions [1,2,3]. Vitamin D is a lipophilic nutrient that was obtained from the diet and vitamin D supplements. Vitamin D insufficiency has been a worldwide health problem [12]. 90% of the population in Qatar suffers from vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency [5]. The dietary sources of vitamin D are limited. These are egg yolks, oily fish, fortified dairy, beef liver, and ready-to-eat breakfast cereals [13]. The diet becomes an important source of vitamin D because avoidance of exposure to sunlight is common in countries like Qatar due to extreme heat [14]. Vitamin D status can be measured while using serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations, this biochemical assessment of vitamin D is invasive and expensive [15]
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