Review Article
Year: 2017 | Month: September | Volume: 7 | Issue: 9 | Pages: 291-301
Validation of Electronic Food Frequency Questionnaires as a Dietary Intake Assessment Method: A Review
Vidisha Sharma1, Ravinder Chadha2
1PhD Scholar, M.Sc. Food and Nutrition; 2Associate Professor, PhD;
Department of Food & Nutrition, Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi, Sikandra Road, New Delhi.
Corresponding Author: Vidisha Sharma
ABSTRACT
Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) have been widely used in various studies assessing dietary intake. Application of technological advancements in FFQs is increasing with the aim of enhancing accuracy and decreasing the respondent and researcher burden. The objective of this review was to explore the validity of various electronic FFQs (eFFQs) as a dietary intake assessment method. A total of 23 studies were finalised for qualitative data analysis after screening of various electronic databases and hand searching. The results showed that most of the eFFQs were self-administered, web-based, used food photographs for food portion size estimation and assessed intake of both macro- and micronutrients. Validity of eFFQs was assessed by comparing nutrient intake with reference methods in terms of association (correlation coefficients) and agreement at group level (paired t-test or Wilcoxon signed rank test). Overall, the association of nutrient intake with the reference method was observed to be acceptable in most studies especially with food records. Only few studies showed good agreement of nutrient intake with the reference method. In case of micronutrients, correlation coefficients >0.20 for all vitamins and minerals were observed in nine studies. The findings highlighted some advantages of eFFQs such as less missing data, convenience, automated data entry and analysis, additional features (audio, photographs, prompts etc.) and less cost than paper. Hence, it can be concluded that eFFQs could be an ideal choice for studies assessing usual dietary intake especially with large sample size and limited resources.
Key words: FFQ, food frequency questionnaire, diet assessment, validation, electronic, web