Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Communication
  • Published:

Validity and reproducibility of self-reported intake of fruit and vegetable among 6th graders

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 58, pages 771–777 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective: Reproducible and valid methods for measuring fruit and vegetable consumption among young school children are urgently needed. The aim of this study was to test the reproducibility and the validity of a newly developed questionnaire on the intake of fruit and vegetable among Norwegian 6th graders. The questionnaire consisted of a 24-h recall part and a food frequency part.

Design: A total of 114 pupils completed the questionnaire two times 14 days apart, and another 85 pupils completed the questionnaire and 7-day food diaries.

Subjects: Pupils of 6th grade with a mean age of 11.9 y.

Results: Spearman correlation coefficients between the frequency part of the questionnaire administered two times varied from 0.62 for fruit to 0.83 for potato, and no difference was seen between the average intakes from the two 24-h recalls. The 24-h recall part of the questionnaire gave higher estimates for the average intake of fruit and juice compared to the 7-day record, while no difference was observed for vegetable intake. Spearman correlation coefficients between the frequency part and the records varied from 0.21 for fruit and potato to 0.32 for the total intake of fruit and vegetable.

Conclusions: Both the 24-h recall and the frequency part gave a consistent response on separate occasions over the test–retest study period. The 6th graders were capable of recording yesterday's intake of vegetable, but overestimated the intake of fruit and juice. The ability to rank subjects based on the frequency part was rather low.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baranowski T, Smith M, Baranowski J, Wang DT, Doyle C, Lin LS, Hearn MD & Resnicow K (1997): Low validity of a seven-item fruit and vegetable food frequency questionnaire among third-grade students. J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 97, 66–68.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Blaker B & Aarsland M (1989): Household Measures and Weight for Food. pp 1–42. Oslo: Landsforeningen for kosthold og helse. (in Norwegian).

    Google Scholar 

  • Buzzard M, Stanton CA, Figueiredo M, Fries EA, Nicholson R, Hogan CJ & Danish SJ (2001): Development and reproducibility of a brief food frequency questionnaire for assessing the fat, fiber, and fruit and vegetable intakes of rural adolescents. J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 101, 1438–1446.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Domel SB, Baranowski T, Davis H, Leonard SB, Riley P & Baranowski J (1994): Fruit and vegetable food frequency by fourth and fifth grade students: validity and reliability. J. Am. Coll. Nutr. 13, 33–39.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Edmunds LD & Ziebland S (2002): Development and validation of the Day in the Life Questionnaire (DILQ) as a measure of fruit and vegetable questionnaire for 7–9 year olds. Health Educ. Res. 17, 211–220.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eriksen K (2001): Developing and evaluation of a method for measuring changes in intake of fruit and vegetable among children aged 6–10 y. Master thesis, Institute for Human Nutrition. Copenhagen. (in Danish).

  • Field AE, Colditz GA, Fox MK, Byers T, Serdula M, Bosch RJ & Peterson KE (1998): Comparison of 4 questionnaires assess-ment of fruit and vegetable intake. Am. J. Public Health 88, 1216–1218.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Field AE, Peterson KE, Gortmaker SL, Cheung L, Rockett H, Fox MK & Colditz GA (1999): Reproducibility and validity of a food frequency questionnaire among fourth to seventh grade inner-city school children: implication of age and day-to-day variation in dietary intake. Public Health Nutr. 2, 293–300.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Johansson L & Andersen LF (1998): Who eats 5 a day?—Intake of fruits and vegetables among Norwegians in relation to gender and lifestyle. J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 98, 689–691.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lytle L, Nichaman MZ, Obarzanek E, Glovky E, Montgomery D, Nicklas T, Zive M & Feldman H (1993): Validation of 24-hour recalls assessed by food records in third-grade children. J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 93, 1431–1436.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lytle LA, Murray DM, Perry CL & Eldridge AL (1998): Validating fourth-grade students' self-report of dietary intake: results from the 5 A Day Power Plus program. J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 98, 570–572.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McPherson RS, Hoelscher DM, Alexander M, Scanlon KS & Serdula MK (2000): Dietary assessment methods among school-aged children: validity and reliability. Prev. Med. 31, S11–S33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Øverby NC & Andersen LF (2002): UNGKOST 2000. Nation-wide dietary survey among 4th and 8th grade pupils in Norway. Sosial og Helsedirektoratet, Oslo. (in Norwegian).

  • Pollestad M (2002): Validation of energy intake measured by a pre-coded food diary among 13-y-old students using energy expenditure measured with Actireg. Master thesis, Institute for Nutrition Research, University of Oslo, Oslo. (in Norwegian).

  • Randall E (1991): Measuring food use in school-aged children. J. School Health 61, 201–203.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • van Assema P, Brug J, Ronda G, Steenhuis I & Oenema A (2002): A short Dutch questionnaire to measure fruit and vegetable intake: relative validity among adults and adolescents. Nutr. Health 16, 85–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This project was supported by grants from the Norwegian Research Council. We thank Mona Bjelland, Jorunn Sofie Randby and Marthe Bottolfs for their help with collecting and coding the dietary data.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Nutrition Research, University of Oslo, Norway

    L F Andersen, E Bere, N Kolbjornsen & K-I Klepp

Authors
  1. L F Andersen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. E Bere
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. N Kolbjornsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. K-I Klepp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to L F Andersen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Andersen, L., Bere, E., Kolbjornsen, N. et al. Validity and reproducibility of self-reported intake of fruit and vegetable among 6th graders. Eur J Clin Nutr 58, 771–777 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601875

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601875

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links