A new method for developing an efficient, regional semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire.

Abstract

Background and objectives: To establish a new method for developing an efficient and region-specific semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (SQFFQ), and to make it a simple, effective and widely applicable measurement tool, this study takes Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province as a case study.

Methods and study design: For 129 common food items, an initial food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and a 24-hour dietary recall survey (24hDR) are constructed, and a variety of methods are combined to improve the convenience and credibility of the questionnaire itself in the inspection process, and the reliability and validity test are carried out.

Results: A total of 367 questionnaires are collected in study, including FFQ and 24hDR at various correction stages, in a three-month interval, and finally a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire containing 104 food items is obtained. The Pearson correlation coefficient of SQFFQ1 and SQFFQ2 ranges from 0.60-0.75, and the Spearman and Kendall correlation coefficients range from 0.50-0.89, and the corre-lation coefficient increases slightly after logarithmic transformation by logarithmic transformation, and the CCC correlation coefficient increases to 0.5-0.95. On average, more than 80% of subjects are classified as identical or adjacent tertiles per SQFFQ result. The Pearson, Spearman, Kendall, CCC correlation coefficients between 24hDR and SQFFQ2 range from 0.50-0.90, and on average more than 75% of participants are in the same or adjacent energy and nutrient tertiles in SQFFQ2 versus 24hDR results.

Conclusions: The semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire for dietary pattern surveys in Xi'an, Shaanxi can effectively assess nutrient intake in dietary nutrient correlation studies.