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Alcohol intake assessment: the sober facts
G I Feunekes1, P van 't Veer, W A van Staveren
1Division of Human Nutrition and Epidemiology, Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands.
American Journal of Epidemiology
|July 10, 1999
Summary
Accurate alcohol intake measurement is crucial. Detailed methods, specifying beer, wine, and liquor, provide more realistic consumption estimates than general questions, improving epidemiologic study quality.
Area of Science:
- Epidemiology
- Public Health
- Nutritional Science
Background:
- Alcohol consumption recommendations often rely on self-reported data.
- The accuracy of self-reported alcohol intake is critical for public health guidelines.
- Understanding the quality of alcohol intake assessment is essential.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review alcohol intake assessment methods.
- To evaluate their capacity for ranking individuals by intake.
- To assess their ability to explain intake variation in populations.
Main Methods:
- Review of 33 methodological papers published after 1984.
- Analysis of five main assessment methods: quantity-frequency, extended quantity-frequency, retrospective diary, prospective diary, and 24-hour recalls.
- Comparison of mean intake levels and individual ranking across methods.
Main Results:
- Mean alcohol intake estimates varied by 20% between methods.
- Specific questioning about beer, wine, and liquor increased intake estimates by 20%.
- Individual intake ranking was satisfactory (weighted correlation coefficients 0.63–0.73).
Conclusions:
- When underestimation is suspected, methods assessing frequency and amount for beer, wine, and liquor separately are most realistic.
- Improved alcohol intake assessment enhances the reliability of epidemiologic findings.
- Detailed dietary assessment methods are key for accurate public health research.