Design and validation of a food frequency questionnaire to assess the dietary intake for adults in pastoral settings in Northern Tanzania
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC Research Notes
Abstract
Objective: Food frequency questionnaires are widely used as a dietary assessment tool in nutritional epidemiol-
ogy to determine the relationship between diet and diseases. In Tanzania, there are several cultural variations in food
intake which makes it necessary to design and validate a culture-specific food frequency questionnaire (CFFQ). There-
fore, we designed a 27-items CFFQ and examine its validity in pastoral communities. Validity of CFFQ was assessed by
comparing nutrient intake estimated from the CFFQ against the average from two 24-h diet recall (2R24). Spearman’s
correlation coefficients, cross classification and Bland–Altman’s methods were used to assess the validity of CFFQ.
Results: A total of 130 adults aged 18 years and above completed both CFFQ and 2R24. Correlation coefficients
between CFFQ and 2R24 ranged from low (r = − 0.07) to moderate (r = 0.37). The correlation coefficients were mod-
erately significant for kilocalories (r = 0.31, p < 0.001), carbohydrate (r = 0.33, p < 0.001), magnesium (r = 0.37, p < 0.001),
and iron (r = 0.34, p < 0.001). On average, about 69% of participants were correctly classified into the same or adjacent
quartile of energy and nutrient intake, while 9% were misclassified by the CFFQ. Bland–Altman’s plot demonstrated
that the CFFQ had acceptable agreement with the 2R24.
Description
Research Note
Keywords
Relative validity, Food frequency questionnaire, Diet recall, Pastoralists