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Use of a common food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess dietary patterns and their relation to allergy and asthma in Europe: pilot study of the GA2LEN FFQ

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 65, pages 750–756 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Comparable international data on food and nutrient intake is often hindered by the lack of a common instrument to assess food intake. The objective of this study was within the Global Allergy and Asthma European Network of Excellence (GA2LEN), we developed and piloted a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess its validity in Europe.

Subjects/Methods:

Five countries participating in GA2LEN took part in the pilot study. A total of 200 adults aged 31–75 years were invited to complete a FFQ in two occasions and to give a blood sample. The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess repeatability of the FFQ. Plasma phospholipid fatty acids (FAs) were analysed by gas chromatography. Pearson correlation was used to analyse the correlation between estimated dietary FA intake and plasma phospholipid FA levels.

Results:

A total of 177 participants (89%) had complete data on FFQ1 and plasma phospholipid FAs. In all, 152 participants (76%) completed both FFQs. ICCs between macronutrients ranged from 0.70 (saturated FAs) to 0.78 (proteins) and between 0.70 (retinol) and 0.81 (vitamin D) for micronutrients. Dietary n-3 FAs showed a good correlation with total plasma phospholipid n-3 FAs and with docosahexaenoic acid in the whole sample (0.40) and in individual countries. Poor correlations were observed for other FAs.

Conclusions:

The GA2LEN FFQ is an appropriate tool to estimate dietary intake for a range of nutrients across Europe regardless of cultural and linguistic differences. The FFQ seems to be useful to estimate the intake of n-3 FAs but not other FAs.

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Acknowledgements

This GA2LEN study is supported by EU Framework programme for research; contract no. FOOD-CT-2004-506378. We are indebted to the researchers who provided us with the EPIC questionnaires: Dr Kim Overvad, Professor Anne Tjønneland, and Jytte Fogh-Larsen (Denmark); Dr Francoise Clavel-Chapelon and Dr Maryvonne Niravong (France); Professor Antonia Trichopoulou (Greece); Professor Paolo Vineis, Dr Simonetta Salvini, and Dr Domenico Palli (Italy); Åsa Ågren (Sweden); Dr Caroline van Rossum, Dr Jet Smit, Dr Jeanne de Vries, Dr Bas Bueno de Mesquita (The Netherlands); Dr Nick Wareham (UK); Dr Joachim Heinrich (Germany); Dr Eiliv Lund and Guri Skeie (Norway); and to the ECRHS Steering Committee for providing a copy of the ECRHS II FFQ.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK

    V Garcia-Larsen, I Bakolis, R Hooper & P G Burney

  2. Department of Immunology, Rheumatology and Allergy, Medical University of Łódź, Lodz, Poland

    M Luczynska & M L Kowalski

  3. Skin and Allergy Hospital, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland

    H Voutilainen, M Ahlström, T Haahtela & E Toskala

  4. Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Economics, Charité University Medical Center, Berlin, Germany

    A Bockelbrink

  5. Department of Allergy, Charité University Medical Centre, Berlin, Germany

    H-H Lee

  6. Allergy Department, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    E Vassilopoulou & N G Papadopoulos

  7. Serviço e Laboratório de Imunologia, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, and Hospital São João, Porto, Portugal

    R Ramalho, A Moreira, L Delgado & M G Castel-Branco

  8. Institute of Human Nutrition, School of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK

    P C Calder & C E Childs

Authors
  1. V Garcia-Larsen
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  2. M Luczynska
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  10. E Vassilopoulou
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  11. N G Papadopoulos
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  13. A Moreira
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  14. L Delgado
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  15. M G Castel-Branco
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  16. P C Calder
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  17. C E Childs
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  18. I Bakolis
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  19. R Hooper
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  20. P G Burney
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Consortia

for the working group of GA2LEN-WP 1.2 ‘Epidemiological and Clinical Studies’

Corresponding author

Correspondence to V Garcia-Larsen.

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Garcia-Larsen, V., Luczynska, M., Kowalski, M. et al. Use of a common food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess dietary patterns and their relation to allergy and asthma in Europe: pilot study of the GA2LEN FFQ. Eur J Clin Nutr 65, 750–756 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2011.15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2011.15

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