Validity of a food-frequency questionnaire for a large prospective cohort study in Bangladesh | British Journal of Nutrition | Cambridge Core (original) (raw)

Article contents

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We have developed a thirty-nine-item semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess the dietary consumption of 11 746 men and women in a prospective cohort study that evaluates the health effects of As from drinking water in Bangladesh. In order to validate the FFQ, two 7 d food diaries (FD) were completed for 189 randomly selected cohort participants in two different seasons of the year. Nutrient values were converted based on both the United States Department of Agriculture's National Nutrient Database and a food composition table for the Indian subcontinent. Pearson product-moment and Spearman non-parametric rank correlation coefficients comparing food and nutrient consumptions estimated from FFQ and 7 d FD were calculated based on log-transformed consumption values with or without adjustment for total energy and correction for within-individual variation. Correlations of macronutrients and common micronutrients including total fat, monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, saturated fat, protein, carbohydrate, dietary fibre, Na, K, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, riboflavin, Mn, thiamin and Fe were moderately good, ranging from 0·30 to 0·76. However, correlations of other micronutrients were weak (<0·30). Large seasonal variations in intakes of retinol equivalents and vitamin C were observed. This analysis documents the degree of validity of the FFQ in measuring specific nutrient intakes in the study population. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to document the validity of a FFQ with the use of 7 d FD in a Bangladeshi population.

Keywords

Type

Research Article

Copyright

Copyright © The Nutrition Society 2004

References

Abdullah, M & Ahmed, L (1993) Validating a simplified approach to the dietary assessment of vitamin A intake in preschool children. Eur J Clin Nutr 47, 115–122.Google Scholar

Abdullah, M & Wheeler, EF (1985) Seasonal variations, and the intra-household distribution of food in a Bangladeshi village. Am J Clin Nutr 41, 1305–1313.Google Scholar

Beaton, GH, Milner, J & Corey, P (1979) Sources of variance in 24-hour dietary recall data: implications for nutrition study design and interpretation. Am J Clin Nutr 32, 2546–2549.Google Scholar

Brown, KH, Black, RE, Robertson, AD & Becker, S (1985) Effects of season and illness on the dietary intake of weanlings during longitudinal studies in rural Bangladesh. Am J Clin Nutr 41, 343–355.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Erkkola, M, Karppinen, M, Javanainen, J, Rasanen, L, Knip, M & Virtanen, SM (2001) Validity and reproducibility of a food frequency questionnaire for pregnant Finnish women. Am J Epidemiol 154, 466–476.Google Scholar

Feskanich, D, Rimm, EB, Giovannucci, EL, Colditz, GA, Stampfer, MJ, Litin, LB & Willett, WC (1993) Reproducibility and validity of food intake measurements from a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. J Am Diet Assoc 93, 790–796.Google Scholar

Gopalan, C, Rama Sastri, BV & Balasubramanian, SC (1989) Nutritive Value of Indian Foods Hyderabad, India Indian Council of Medical Research, National Institute of Nutrition.Google Scholar

Hsueh, YM, Cheng, GS, Wu, MM, Yu, HS, Kuo, TL & Chen, CJ (1995) Multiple risk factors associated with arsenic-induced skin cancer: effects of chronic liver disease and malnutritional status. Br J Cancer 71, 109–114.Google Scholar

Hsueh, YM, Ko, YF, Huang, YK, Chen, HW, Chiou, HY, Huang, YL, Yang, MH & Chen, CJ (2003) Determinants of inorganic arsenic methylation capability among residents of the Lanyang Basin, Taiwan: arsenic and selenium exposure and alcohol consumption. Toxicol Lett 137, 49–63.Google Scholar

Hsueh, YM, Wu, WL, Huang, YL, Chiou, HY, Tseng, CH & Chen, CJ (1998) Low serum carotene level and increased risk of ischemic heart disease related to long-term arsenic exposure. Atherosclerosis 141, 249–257.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Jain, M, Howe, GR & Rohan, T (1996) Dietary assessment in epidemiology: comparison on food frequency and a diet history questionnaire with a 7-day food record. Am J Epidemiol 143, 953–960.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Liu, K, Stamler, J, Dyer, A, McKeever, J & McKeever, P (1978) Statistical methods to assess and minimize the role of intra-individual variability in obscuring the relationship between dietary lipids and serum cholesterol. J Chronic Dis 31, 399–418.Google Scholar

Misbahuddin, M (2003) Consumption of arsenic through cooked rice. Lancet 361, 435–436.Google Scholar

Rimm, EB, Giovannucci, EL, Stampfer, MJ, Colditz, GA, Litin, LB & Willett, WC (1992) Reproducibility and validity of an expanded self-administered semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire among male health professionals. Am J Epidemiol 135, 1114–1126.Google Scholar

Roychowdhury, T, Uchino, T, Tokunaga, H & Ando, M (2002) Survey of arsenic in food composites from an arsenic-affected area of West Bengal, India. Food Chem Toxicol 40, 1611–1621.Google Scholar

Salvini, S, Hunter, DJ, Sampson, L, Stampfer, MJ, Colditz, GA, Rosner, B & Willett, WC (1989) Food-based validation of a dietary questionnaire: the effects of week-to-week variation in food consumption. Int J Epidemiol 18, 858–867.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Shrout, PE & Fleiss, JL (1979) Intraclass correlations: uses in assessing rater reliability. Psychol Bull 86, 420–428.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

van Geen, A, Ahsan, H & Horneman, AH (2002) Promotion of well-switching to mitigate the current arsenic crisis in Bangladesh. Bull World Health Organ 80, 732–737.Google ScholarPubMed

Walker, AM & Blettner, M (1985) Comparing imperfect measures of exposure. Am J Epidemiol 121, 783–790.Google Scholar

Willett, W (1987) Nutritional epidemiology: issues and challenges. Int J Epidemiol 16, 312–317.Google Scholar

Willett, W & Lenart, E (1998) Reproducibility and validity of food-frequency questionnaires. In Nutritional Epidemiology, pp. 101–147 [Willett, WC, editors]. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Willett, W & Stampfer, MJ (1986) Total energy intake: implications for epidemiologic analyses. Am J Epidemiol 124, 17–27.Google Scholar

Willett, WC, Sampson, L, Stampfer, MJ, Rosner, B, Bain, C, Witschi, J, Hennekens, CH & Speizer, FE (1985) Reproducibility and validity of a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Am J Epidemiol 122, 51–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed