Cruciferous vegetable intake questionnaire improves cruciferous vegetable intake estimates

Area of Science:

• Nutritional epidemiology
• Dietary assessment methodology
• Biomarker validation

Background:

• Accurate quantification of cruciferous vegetable intake is crucial for understanding their role in chronic disease prevention.
• Existing dietary assessment tools may not precisely capture specific cruciferous vegetable consumption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a focused Cruciferous Vegetable Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ).
• To specifically quantify dietary cruciferous vegetable exposure.
• To compare the FFQ's performance against a standard FFQ and a biological biomarker.

Main Methods:

• 107 participants completed the Cruciferous Vegetable FFQ and a standard FFQ twice over two weeks.
• Dietary recalls were collected on three separate days.
• Urinary dithiocarbamate levels were measured as a biomarker of cruciferous vegetable intake.

Main Results:

• The Cruciferous Vegetable FFQ demonstrated good reliability (r(s)=0.69) and was reproducible.
• It estimated higher cruciferous vegetable intake compared to the standard FFQ.
• Urinary dithiocarbamate excretion correlated significantly with intake from the Cruciferous Vegetable FFQ (r(s)=0.26).

Conclusions:

• The Cruciferous Vegetable FFQ is a valid and reproducible tool for assessing cruciferous vegetable exposure.
• It offers improved accuracy over standard FFQs, potentially impacting epidemiological risk estimates.
• This FFQ is suitable for research, especially in studies promoting vegetable intake for disease risk reduction.