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Relative validity of a food frequency questionnaire used in the Inter99 study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 62, pages 1038–1046 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective:

To evaluate the validity of the Inter99 food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) compared with a 28-days' diet history and biomarkers.

Subjects:

A random sample of 13 016 individuals were drawn from a general population and invited for a health screening programme. Participation rate was 52.5%. All high-risk individuals were re-invited for assessment after 1 and 3 years and completed a 198-item FFQ at all three occasions. Participants attending for 3 years follow-up were invited to participate in the validation study, including a 28-days' diet history, a 24-h urine collection and a fasting blood sample. Overall, 264 subjects participated.

Results:

Spearman's rank correlation coefficients between the two dietary methods ranged from 0.31(β-carotene) to 0.64 (fruits) in men and from 0.31 (polyunsaturated fat and sodium) to 0.64 (fruits) for women. The proportion of individuals classified in the same or adjacent quintiles were, on average, 72% for men and 69% for women. Gross misclassification was found on average in 2%. The correlation coefficients of the residuals ranged from 0.27 (sodium) to 0.61 (fruits) for men and from 0.21 (sodium) to 0.62 (B12-vitamin) for women. Correlation coefficients between fruit and vegetable intake and carotenoids ranged from −0.08 (lycopene) to 0.44 (α-carotene). For the residuals the correlation coefficients ranged from −0.004 (lycopene) to 0.47 (α-carotene).

Conclusion:

The Inter99 FFQ and the residuals of the intake provide acceptable classification of individuals according to their dietary intakes and the FFQ gives a good quantitative measurement of key dietary components.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Eva Aggernæs for performing all the diet history interviews, Gitte Stage for processing the data and Henning Østerby for technical assistance and all members of the Inter99 team who recruited the participants for the study and did the entire laboratory work. Furthermore, we acknowledge the steering group for the Inter99 study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Centre for Prevention and Health, Glostrup University Hospital, Glostrup, Denmark

    U Toft, L Kristoffersen & S Ladelund

  2. Department of Food Chemistry, The Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research, Mørkhøj Bygade 19, Søborg, Denmark

    A Bysted, J Jakobsen & K Borch-Johnsen

  3. Steno Diabetes Centre, Niels Steensensvej 2, Gentofte, Denmark

    C Lau & T Jørgensen

  4. The Danish Heart Foundation, Hauser Plads 10, Copenhagen, Denmark

    L Ovesen

Authors
  1. U Toft
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  2. L Kristoffersen
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  5. J Jakobsen
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  6. C Lau
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  7. T Jørgensen
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  8. K Borch-Johnsen
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  9. L Ovesen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to U Toft.

Additional information

Guarantor: U Toft.

Contributors: TJ was responsible for the design and conduct of the Inter99 study. LK was responsible for the design and conduct of the validation study. AB and JJ were responsible for the biochemical analyses. UT was responsible for conducting the data analysis, interpretation of the data and writing of the manuscript. All the authors participated in editing the manuscript and provided advice regarding interpretation of the results. None of the contributing authors had any financial or personal interests in any of the bodies sponsoring this research.

Appendix A

Appendix A

The two regressions defining the residuals can be written as

where i denotes method and j numbers the measurements, Yij are the logs of the crude measurements, αi, βi are regression coefficients and ɛij are error terms. We set

and assume

It follows that

and

When the regressions are identical, that is βi=βσi=σ and ρi=ρ its easy to see that

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Toft, U., Kristoffersen, L., Ladelund, S. et al. Relative validity of a food frequency questionnaire used in the Inter99 study. Eur J Clin Nutr 62, 1038–1046 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602815

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