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Essential steps in the analysis of NHANES dietary data
Author(s) -
Kranz Sibylle,
Dodd Kevin,
Juan WenYen,
Johnson LuAnn K.,
Jahns Lisa
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.848.20
Subject(s) - food group , national health and nutrition examination survey , environmental health , dietary reference intake , proxy (statistics) , medicine , nutrient , gerontology , mathematics , statistics , biology , population , ecology
Analyzing dietary intake data of nationally representative samples is a highly sought skill, especially in the pursuit of public health recommendations or the evaluation of dietary guidance. Although NHANES are publicly available data and the CDC provides guidance a number of analytical programs to help researchers conduct analysis, the merging of survey waves and calculation of average consumption is rather challenging. Analysts must be aware of changes that may have occurred between each 2 yr cycle of the continuous NHANES and FNDDS, the food and nutrient database used to calculate dietary intakes, including elimination or changes in food codes. Units of intake, e.g. g/100 kcals, g/100 g, or g/day, can impact findings and must be chosen in relation to the research question. We provide step‐by‐step instructions on the data manipulation required to analyze dietary intake data from NHANES 2003–2010. As our primary interest is the intake of MyPlate equivalents of food groups and subgroups (e.g., cup or ounce equivalents), individual food files were merged with the MyPlate Equivalents Database 2.0, the CNNP addendum to MPED 2.0 and an author‐developed list of proxy matched food items. The potential need for correcting data for the distribution of food groups or nutrients will be discussed.