A food frequency questionnaire for adolescents: defining eating patterns

Area of Science:

• Nutrition Science
• Cardiovascular Health
• Adolescent Health

Background:

• Dietary patterns significantly influence adolescent health and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.
• Accurate assessment of food intake is crucial for understanding these associations.
• Existing dietary assessment tools may have limitations in capturing habitual intake patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a self-administered food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for assessing weekly protein food consumption in adolescents.
• To determine the reliability and validity of the FFQ in a large adolescent cohort.
• To explore the association between specific eating patterns, identified by the FFQ, and CVD risk factors.

Main Methods:

• Development of a 64-item self-administered food frequency questionnaire (FFQ).
• Assessment of FFQ reliability using 2-hour and 2-week test-retest measures.
• Validation of FFQ against seven consecutive 24-hour dietary recalls.
• Analysis of dietary intake data stratified by age, race, and sex.
• Correlation analysis between dietary intake and low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol levels.

Main Results:

• The FFQ demonstrated consistency in measuring specific food intake over time.
• A mean 50% agreement was observed between FFQ and 24-hour recalls for food frequency and quantity.
• Significant differences in protein food intake were noted across age groups, race, and sex.
• Intake of eggs and luncheon meat showed significant correlations with low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol.

Conclusions:

• The developed FFQ is a reliable and valid tool for assessing protein food consumption in adolescents.
• The FFQ can effectively identify dietary patterns associated with cardiovascular disease risk.
• Findings highlight racial and sex-based differences in adolescent protein intake, informing targeted nutritional guidance.