Vegetable and fruit food frequency questionnaire serves as a proxy for quantified intake

Area of Science:

• Nutrition Science
• Public Health Surveillance
• Dietary Assessment

Background:

• Public health surveillance requires accurate dietary intake tools.
• The Rapid Risk Factor Surveillance System (RRFSS) offers a vegetable and fruit food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) module.
• Validating FFQ tools is crucial for monitoring population dietary trends.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare reported vegetable and fruit consumption from the RRFSS FFQ with quantified servings from a reference method.
• To assess the FFQ's accuracy in classifying individuals meeting the recommended daily intake of five or more servings of fruits and vegetables.

Main Methods:

• 174 adult respondents completed the RRFSS FFQ.
• Dietitians conducted three separate 24-hour dietary recalls via telephone using a multiple-pass method as the reference.
• Data were analyzed to compare FFQ reported intake with recall-ascertained servings.

Main Results:

• Mean daily intake was similar between the FFQ (4.6 servings) and 24-hour recalls (4.8 servings), with no statistically significant difference (p=0.92).
• Classification agreement for consuming five or more servings daily was high: 37% by FFQ versus 35% by recalls.
• The FFQ demonstrated good concordance with the reference method for both mean intake and classification.

Conclusions:

• The RRFSS FFQ is a valid tool for estimating vegetable and fruit consumption.
• The FFQ can serve as a reliable proxy for quantified intake in public health surveillance.
• This validated FFQ supports accurate monitoring of population-level fruit and vegetable intake.