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  • Original Article
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Epidemiology

Validity and reproducibility of a web-based, self-administered food frequency questionnaire

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 66, pages 166–173 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

To assess the validity and the reproducibility of a newly developed web-based, self-administered food frequency questionnaire (web-FFQ).

Subjects/Methods:

A total of 74 healthy subjects (34 men and 40 women) from the Québec City metropolitan area were asked to complete, in random order, the web-FFQ, a validated interviewer-administered FFQ (IA-FFQ) and a 3-day food record (3-day FR).

Results:

Mean intakes of 17/22 nutrients assessed between the web-FFQ and the 3-day FR were not significantly different (differences <10%, P⩾0.11). Sex and energy-adjusted de-attenuated Pearson correlation coefficients for each nutrient varied from 0.12–0.98 (mean R=0.55, 95% confidence interval 0.46; 0.63) between the web-FFQ and the 3-day FR. All correlations were significant (P⩽0.01) and above 0.34 (mean R=0.59, 95% confidence interval 0.54; 0.65) between the web-FFQ and the IA-FFQ, except for sodium (R=0.17, P=0.14). Cross-classification analysis revealed that on average, 77% of subjects were classified in the same or adjacent quartile of nutrient intake between the web-FFQ and the 3-day FR. Correlation coefficients for reproducibility of the web-FFQ tested 4–6 weeks apart in the same individuals were all equal or above 0.48 (P⩽0.0001; mean R=0.72, 95% confidence interval 0.68; 0.76). More than 90% of the subjects were classified in the same or adjacent quartile between the two administrations of the web-FFQ, while only 0.8% was misclassified.

Conclusions:

These data demonstrate that the newly developed web-based FFQ appears to have reasonable validity and good reproducibility for assessing nutrient intakes at the group and individual levels in a population of healthy adults.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Cardiovascular Health. We express our gratitude to Celertech Inc. and the Pedagogical Resources Center of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences of Laval University for their work in the development of the web-FFQ's interface. We are grateful to the participants without whom the study would not have been possible. We also thank Annie Motard-Bélanger M.Sc., Amélie Charest M.Sc. and Iris Gigleux M.Sc. who provided helpful assistance in the development of the web-FFQ and the recruitment of the subjects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods, Laval University, Québec, QC, Canada

    M-È Labonté, A Cyr, L Baril-Gravel, M-M Royer & B Lamarche

Authors
  1. M-È Labonté
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  2. A Cyr
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  3. L Baril-Gravel
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  5. B Lamarche
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Correspondence to B Lamarche.

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Labonté, MÈ., Cyr, A., Baril-Gravel, L. et al. Validity and reproducibility of a web-based, self-administered food frequency questionnaire. Eur J Clin Nutr 66, 166–173 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2011.163

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