Open AccessValidity and reproducibility of a semi‐quantitative food frequency questionnaire for use among Portuguese pregnant women
Author(s) -
Pinto Elisabete,
Severo Milton,
Correia Sofia,
Dos Santos Silva Isabel,
Lopes Carla,
Barros Henrique
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
maternal and child nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.181
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1740-8709
pISSN - 1740-8695
DOI - 10.1111/j.1740-8709.2009.00199.x
Subject(s) - medicine , food frequency questionnaire , pregnancy , portuguese , reproducibility , postpartum period , first trimester , demography , obstetrics , environmental health , gestation , statistics , linguistics , philosophy , genetics , mathematics , sociology , biology
This study aimed to evaluate the validity and reproducibility of a semi‐quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to estimate nutrient intake among Portuguese pregnant women. A sample of 101 pregnant women completed a 3‐day food diary (FD) in each pregnancy trimester (reference method) and an interviewer‐administered FFQ in the immediate post‐partum period. Ranking women according to their usual intake showed that, on average, 65% were classified into the same ±1 quintile and 2.4% into opposite quintiles by the two methods. Energy‐adjusted and de‐attenuated correlation coefficients ranged from 0.20 (protein) to 0.58 (riboflavin). Similar results were obtained when the FFQ was compared to each trimester‐specific FD. To assess the FFQ reproducibility, 70 women in their third pregnancy trimester were interviewed twice within a 2‐week interval. The level of agreement was high, with ≥75% of the participants being classified into the same ±1 quintile by the two administrations for 13 of the 15 nutrients examined. A review of the published literature revealed that this is the first FFQ to take the whole pregnancy as its reference time window. Our findings showed that a single administration of this FFQ in the immediate post‐partum period is a valid tool to rank Portuguese pregnant women according to their intakes.