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Development of a 20-item food frequency questionnaire to assess a ‘prudent’ dietary pattern among young women in Southampton

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 64, pages 99–104 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective:

To develop a short food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) that can be used among young women in Southampton to assess compliance with a prudent dietary pattern characterized by high consumption of wholemeal bread, fruit and vegetables, and low consumption of sugar, white bread, and red and processed meat.

Methods:

Diet was assessed using a 100-item interviewer-administered FFQ in 6129 non-pregnant women aged 20–34 years. In total, 94 of these women were re-interviewed 2 years later using the same FFQ. Subsequently, diet was assessed in 378 women attending SureStart Children's Centres in the Nutrition and Well-being Study (NWS) using a 20-item FFQ. The 20 foods included were those that characterized the prudent dietary pattern.

Results:

The 20-item prudent diet score was highly correlated with the full 100-item score (r=0.94) in the Southampton Women's Survey (SWS). Both scores were correlated with red blood cell folate (r=0.28 for the 100-item score and r=0.25 for the 20-item score). Among the women re-interviewed after 2 years, the change in prudent diet score was correlated with change in red cell folate for both the 20-item (rS=0.31) and 100-item scores (rS=0.32). In the NWS a strong association between the 20-item prudent diet score and educational attainment (r=0.41) was observed, similar to that seen in the SWS (r=0.47).

Conclusions:

The prudent diet pattern describes a robust axis of variation in diet. A 20-item FFQ based on the foods that characterize the prudent diet pattern has clear advantages in terms of time and resources, and is a helpful tool to characterize the diets of young women in Southampton.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the women of Southampton who took part in these studies and the research nurses and other staff who collected and processed the data. The SWS was funded by the Medical Research Council, the University of Southampton and the Dunhill Medical Trust. This NWB was funded by an award from Danone Institute International.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK

    S R Crozier, H M Inskip, M E Barker, W T Lawrence, C Cooper & S M Robinson

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  1. S R Crozier
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  2. H M Inskip
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  3. M E Barker
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  4. W T Lawrence
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  5. C Cooper
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  6. S M Robinson
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the SWS Study Group

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Correspondence to S R Crozier.

Additional information

Dual publication info: The development of the prudent diet score for use in the Nutrition and Well-being study was published as an abstract in Proceedings of the Nutrition Society (2008), 67 (OCE8), E346. However, this did not contain data about change in score, or associations with red blood cell folate in the SWS.

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Crozier, S., Inskip, H., Barker, M. et al. Development of a 20-item food frequency questionnaire to assess a ‘prudent’ dietary pattern among young women in Southampton. Eur J Clin Nutr 64, 99–104 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2009.114

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