Food list reduction for a food frequency questionnaire: methodological issues

Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia

Barros, Maria-Elisa¹  Martins, Patrícia Dias¹  Costa, Luciane Pires¹  Chiara, Vera Lucia¹ 

[1] Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro

关键词: Food frequency questionnaire;    Food inquiry;    Food intake;    Nutritional epidemiology;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S1415-790X2007000300012

学科分类：过敏症与临床免疫学

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

OBJECTIVE: Toreduce the food list of a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire, throughseveral methodological strategies, maintaining the ability to assess energy,proteins, glycids, lipids, calcium, and iron consumption.
METHODS: A semi-quantitative 80-item food frequency questionnaire, answeredby 224 female adolescents (aged 12-19 years) was used. The list was reducedthrough multiple linear regressions, frequency of consumption and food nutritionalcomposition. It was assessed through Student's t-test, sensitivity ofadolescents' distribution according to consumption quartiles, Kappa coefficientand regression models.
RESULTS: Food included in the analysis showed a positive regression coefficient,with a significant F value (P<0.001). The models' total variances were over0.87, and some food types did not show plausible models. Thirty-two food typeswere selected among the models, and 37 among the most commonly consumed ones.Both criteria included some different foods and, when these were merged, 40food types formed the abridged list. Consumption averages did not vary betweenthe complete list and the reduced one. Sensitivity analyses ranged from 85%to 100%. The agreement level was significant for all diet factors. Regressionmodels in the reduced list kept total variances over 0.85 and similar food typesas compared to the previous ones.
CONCLUSION: The established criteria were appropriate to reduce the food list from 80 to 41 items, keeping the predictive ability and food intake assessment of the components investigated in this population group.

【 授权许可】

CC BY