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Reproducibility and relative validity of a brief quantitative food frequency questionnaire for assessing fruit and vegetable intakes in N orth‐ A frican women
Author(s) -
Landais E.,
Gartner A.,
Bour A.,
McCullough F.,
Delpeuch F.,
Holdsworth M.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of human nutrition and dietetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1365-277X
pISSN - 0952-3871
DOI - 10.1111/jhn.12131
Subject(s) - medicine , food frequency questionnaire , spearman's rank correlation coefficient , reproducibility , context (archaeology) , rank correlation , correlation coefficient , demography , environmental health , statistics , mathematics , sociology , paleontology , biology
Background In the context of a rapidly increasing prevalence of noncommunicable diseases, fruit and vegetables could play a key preventive role. To date, there is no rapid assessment tool available for measuring the fruit and vegetable intakes of N orth‐ A frican women. The present study aimed to investigate the reproducibility and relative validity of an eight‐item quantitative f ood f requency q uestionnaire that measures the fruit and vegetable intakes ( FV ‐ FFQ ) of M oroccan women. Methods During a 1‐week period, 100 women, living in the city of R abat, M orocco (aged 20–49 years) completed the short FV ‐ FFQ twice: once at baseline ( FV ‐ FFQ 1) and once at the end of the study ( FV ‐ FFQ 2). In the mean time, participants completed three 24‐h dietary recalls. All questionnaires were administered by interviewers. Reproducibility was assessed by computing Spearman's correlation coefficients, i ntra c lass c orrelation ( ICC ) coefficients and k appa statistics. Relative validity was assessed by computing W ilcoxon signed‐rank tests and S pearman's correlation coefficients, as well as by performing B land– A ltman plots. Results In terms of reproducibility, S pearman's correlation coefficient was 0.56; ICC coefficient was 0.68; and weighted k appa was 0.35. In terms of relative validity, compared with the three 24‐h recalls, the FV ‐ FFQ slightly underestimated mean fruit and vegetable intakes (−10.9%; P = 0.006); Spearman's correlation coefficient was 0.69; at the individual level, intakes measured by the FV ‐ FFQ were between 0.39 and 2.19 times those measured by the 24‐h recalls. Conclusions The brief eight‐item FV ‐ FFQ is a reliable and relatively valid tool for measuring mean fruit and vegetable intakes at the population level, although this is not the case at the individual level.