1. ¹Nutrition Program, School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, 4029, Australia
2. ²School of Health Sciences, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
3. ³Tropical Health Program, School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, 4029, Australia
4. ⁴Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Herston, Queensland, 4029, Australia

Correspondence: SA McNaughton, MRC Human Nutrition Research, Elsie Widdowson Laboratory, Fulbourn Rd, Cambridge CB1 9NL, UK. E-mail: sarah.mcnaughton@mrc-hnr.cam.ac.uk

Received 31 July 2003; Revised 22 April 2004; Accepted 11 August 2004; Published online 13 October 2004.

Abstract

Background: Reliability or validity studies are important for the evaluation of measurement error in dietary assessment methods. An approach to validation known as the method of triads uses triangulation techniques to calculate the validity coefficient of a food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ).

Objective: To assess the validity of an FFQ estimates of carotenoid and vitamin E intake against serum biomarker measurements and weighed food records (WFRs), by applying the method of triads.

Design: The study population was a sub-sample of adult participants in a randomised controlled trial of -carotene and sunscreen in the prevention of skin cancer. Dietary intake was assessed by a self-administered FFQ and a WFR. Nonfasting blood samples were collected and plasma analysed for five carotenoids (-carotene, -carotene, -cryptoxanthin, lutein, lycopene) and vitamin E. Correlation coefficients were calculated between each of the dietary methods and the validity coefficient was calculated using the method of triads. The 95% confidence intervals for the validity coefficients were estimated using bootstrap sampling.

Results: The validity coefficients of the FFQ were highest for -carotene (0.85) and lycopene (0.62), followed by -carotene (0.55) and total carotenoids (0.55), while the lowest validity coefficient was for lutein (0.19). The method of triads could not be used for -cryptoxanthin and vitamin E, as one of the three underlying correlations was negative.

Conclusions: Results were similar to other studies of validity using biomarkers and the method of triads. For many dietary factors, the upper limit of the validity coefficients was less than 0.5 and therefore only strong relationships between dietary exposure and disease will be detected.

Sponsorship: National Health and Medical Research Council.