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  • Original Article
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Reproducibility and relative validity of a food-frequency questionnaire among French adults and adolescents

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 63, pages 282–291 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective:

Our aim was to evaluate the reproducibility of a food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) developed in a French population, and its validity against four 24-h dietary recalls (24-HRs).

Methods:

A total of 57 adults (aged 18–63), 17 adolescents (aged 14–18) and 20 children (aged 10–14) completed four 24-HRs (one per season) and two FFQs over a 1-year interval. Reproducibility of the FFQ was estimated by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). The validity of FFQ was assessed by comparison with the four 24-HRs.

Results:

For most nutrients, the first FFQ measurements gave higher mean values than the second FFQ. The ICCs for nutrients ranged from 0.39 for total protein to 0.83 for alcohol. The ICCs were higher for food items consumed daily such as milk (0.80) or sugars and confectionery (0.65), and lower for rarely eaten food such as inner organs (0.11). Nutrient intakes as assessed by FFQs were higher than those from the 24-HRs, except for alcohol. The de-attenuated Pearson's correlation coefficient for nutrients varied from 0.25 (dietary fiber) to 0.90 (alcohol), but the adjustment for energy did not improve these coefficients. When nutrient intakes were categorized into quintiles, FFQ and 24-HRs produced agreement rates (same or adjacent quintile) between 55% (for PUFA) and 95% (for alcohol), while misclassification to an extreme quintile was rare (<5%).

Conclusion:

The FFQ developed for the FLVS II Study can be used to classify adults or adolescents according to their nutrients and food intakes over a 1-year period.

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Acknowledgements

The Fleurbaix-Laventie Ville Santé Study was supported by grants from the CEDUS (Centre for Sugar Research and Information), the CISB (Centre for Beer Scientific Information), Groupe Fournier, Knoll, Lesieur, Nestlé France and Roche Diagnostics companies. MA Charles was a recipient of grants from the ALFEDIAM (Association de Langue Française pour l'étude du Diabète et du Métabolisme) and from the Mutuelle Générale de l'éducation Nationale.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INSERM, Unit 780, Villejuif, France

    V Deschamps, B de Lauzon-Guillain, L Lafay & M A Charles

  2. Paris XI University, Orsay, France

    V Deschamps, B de Lauzon-Guillain, L Lafay & M A Charles

  3. IFR 69, Villejuif, France

    V Deschamps, B de Lauzon-Guillain, L Lafay & M A Charles

  4. Association Fleurbaix-Laventie Ville Santé, Laventie, France

    J-M Borys

  5. Nutrition Department, University Hospital, Lille, France

    M Romon

Authors
  1. V Deschamps
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  2. B de Lauzon-Guillain
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  3. L Lafay
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  4. J-M Borys
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  5. M A Charles
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  6. M Romon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to B de Lauzon-Guillain.

Additional information

Contributors: VD conceived the paper and led the design, interpretation and preparation of the manuscript. BdL-G contributed to the data analysis and manuscript writing. LL participated in the development of the questionnaire, study design, interpretation of the results and revision of the drafts. MAC and MR were involved in all aspects from study conception to manuscript writing.

Appendix A

Appendix A

Development of the food frequency questionnaire

The FFQ was developed according to the methodology preposed by Willett (1998). The food list was defined on the basis of dietary intake data obtained from the Fleurbaix Laventie Ville Santé I (FLVS I) Study (Lafay et al., 1997). In 1992–1993, 549 families, living in Fleurbaix and Laventie, two small towns of northern France, participated in an epidemiologic study. Dietary intake was assessed using a 1-day record (not on a school day) for children under 14 year (1146 children) and a 3-day record (two weekdays and one weekend day) for adolescents and adults (130 adolescents, aged 14–18 years and 1088 adults, aged 18 years or more). The methods and results of this dietary survey were described in a previous paper (Lafay et al., 1998). We used regression analysis to identify the food items contributing substantially to energy and fat intake and with a high between-subjects coefficient of variation. Using this procedure, 124 items were selected. For each item, two series of three portions size were estimated, one for children aged less than 14 years and another for adolescents aged ⩾14 years and adults: low, medium and high portion sizes (g) were estimated from tertiles of the amount of the FLVS I Study subjects' consumption for each item.

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Deschamps, V., de Lauzon-Guillain, B., Lafay, L. et al. Reproducibility and relative validity of a food-frequency questionnaire among French adults and adolescents. Eur J Clin Nutr 63, 282–291 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602914

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