Culture-specific food frequency questionnaires: Development for use in a cardiovascular study

Area of Science:

• Nutrition Science
• Epidemiology
• Public Health

Background:

• Cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevalence studies require accurate dietary assessment tools.
• Existing food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) may not adequately capture the dietary patterns of diverse cultural groups in Canada.
• Culturally adapted dietary assessment methods are crucial for understanding CVD risk in multicultural populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop self-administered, culture-specific food frequency questionnaires (FFQs).
• To adapt FFQs for use in a cardiovascular disease prevalence study among general Canadian, South Asian Canadian, and Chinese Canadian populations.
• To describe the methodology for FFQ development and initial evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Utilized existing food record data from previous studies for each cultural group.
• Employed a database to identify culturally relevant food items and appropriate serving sizes.
• Based FFQ structure on a previously validated FFQ from the Canadian Diet, Lifestyle, and Health Study.
• Calculated foods contributing to 19 key food components for the general Canadian sample.

Main Results:

• Successfully developed culture-specific FFQs for general Canadian, South Asian Canadian, and Chinese Canadian populations.
• Identified key food items and serving sizes contributing to major dietary components within each group.
• Completed initial evaluation of the general Canadian FFQ.

Conclusions:

• Self-administered, culture-specific FFQs were developed, adapting a validated methodology.
• These FFQs are suitable for assessing dietary intake in diverse Canadian populations for CVD prevalence studies.
• Validation against 7-day food records is ongoing for all developed FFQs.