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Socioeconomic questionnaire and clinical assessment in the HELENA Cross-Sectional Study: methodology

Abstract

Rationale:

Environmental factors such as dietary habits, breastfeeding, socioeconomic conditions and educational factors are strong influences on nutritional and puberty status, physical activity, food choices and their interactions. Several diseases of adulthood seem to be linked to, or to originate from, lifestyle in childhood and adolescence.

Objective:

The aims of this study are to describe birth parameters and socioeconomic factors and to assess clinical status in adolescents aged 13–16 years from 10 European countries participating in the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence (HELENA) Cross-Sectional Study (CSS).

Methodology:

A self-report questionnaire on the socioeconomic status, a parental questionnaire concerning neonatal period and also a case report form (CRF), in which clinical items during clinical examination (such as medical history, treatments, anthropometry, Tanner staging, blood pressure, heart rate) were assessed. To develop these documents, first a list of items was established, a search of existing documents was performed and the advice of local and international experts was taken. All documents (questionnaires and an operations manual) were discussed in plenary HELENA meetings; a final version of these documents was fixed, and the process of translation and back translation was performed.

Results:

The questionnaires and CRF were tested for validation in all 10 participant cities; 208 adolescents were enrolled during the pilot study. All items that caused problems or questions in one or more participating centers or were completed by < 85% of the adolescents were reviewed before the beginning of the HELENA-CSS.

Conclusion:

These final questionnaires and CRF will contribute to better understanding of the inequalities in nutrition, behavior and health in the European adolescent population. The experience and process should be useful for other multicenter studies.

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Acknowledgements

The HELENA Study has taken place with the financial support of the European Community Sixth RTD Framework Programme (Contract FOOD-CT-2005-007034). The content of this paper reflects only the authors' views and the European Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

The researchers from the University of Zaragoza, Spain (LAM) are supported by FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE (Spain).

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Correspondence to F Gottrand.

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Frédéric Gottrand has received consulting fees from Numico Clinical Nutrition, lecture fees from SMS and grant support from Danone Research. The remaining authors state no conflict of interest.

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Iliescu, C., Béghin, L., Maes, L. et al. Socioeconomic questionnaire and clinical assessment in the HELENA Cross-Sectional Study: methodology. Int J Obes 32 (Suppl 5), S19–S25 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2008.178

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