Two New Meal- and Web-Based Interactive Food Frequency Questionnaires: Validation of Energy and Macronutrient IntakeShow others and affiliations
2013 (English)In: Journal of Medical Internet Research, E-ISSN 1438-8871, Vol. 15, no 6, article id UNSP e109Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Background: Meal-Q and its shorter version, MiniMeal-Q, are 2 new Web-based food frequency questionnaires. Their meal-based and interactive format was designed to promote ease of use and to minimize answering time, desirable improvements in large epidemiological studies. Objective: We evaluated the validity of energy and macronutrient intake assessed with Meal-Q and MiniMeal-Q as well as the reproducibility of Meal-Q. Methods: Healthy volunteers aged 20-63 years recruited from Stockholm County filled out the 174-item Meal-Q. The questionnaire was compared to 7-day weighed food records (WFR; n=163), for energy and macronutrient intake, and to doubly labeled water (DLW; n=39), for total energy expenditure. In addition, the 126-item MiniMeal-Q was evaluated in a simulated validation using truncated Meal-Q data. We also assessed the answering time and ease of use of both questionnaires. Results: Bland-Altman plots showed a varying bias within the intake range for all validity comparisons. Cross-classification of quartiles placed 70%-86% in the same/adjacent quartile with WFR and 77% with DLW. Deattenuated and energy-adjusted Pearson correlation coefficients with the WFR ranged from r=0.33-0.74 for macronutrients and was r=0.18 for energy. Correlations with DLW were r=0.42 for Meal-Q and r=0.38 for MiniMeal-Q. Intraclass correlations for Meal-Q ranged from r=0.57-0.90. Median answering time was 17 minutes for Meal-Q and 7 minutes for MiniMeal-Q, and participants rated both questionnaires as easy to use. Conclusions: Meal-Q and MiniMeal-Q are easy to use and have short answering times. The ranking agreement is good for most of the nutrients for both questionnaires and Meal-Q shows fair reproducibility.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
JMIR PUBLICATIONS, INC , 2013. Vol. 15, no 6, article id UNSP e109
Keywords [en]
validity, reproducibility, food frequency questionnaire, Internet, weighed food record, doubly labeled water, adult
National Category
Health Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-40684DOI: 10.2196/jmir.2458ISI: 000321961500008PubMedID: 23739995Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84881052262OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-40684DiVA, id: diva2:1246022
2018-09-062018-09-062024-01-17Bibliographically approved