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Validity of the Australian Recommended Food Score as a diet quality index for Pre-schoolers
Tracy L Burrows, Kate Collins, Jane Watson
1Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medicine, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan 2308, NSW, Australia. mboggess@asu.edu.
Insights
The Australian Recommended Food Scores for Pre-schoolers (ARFS-P) is a validated tool to assess diet quality in children aged two to five years. It accurately reflects nutrient intake and food consumption patterns in young children.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Dietary Assessment Tools
- Public Health Nutrition
Background:
- Diet quality indices are crucial for assessing nutrient adequacy in dietary intake research.
- Existing tools often lack specific validation for preschool-aged children.
- This study addresses the need for a reliable diet quality measure for children aged two to five years.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate the Australian Recommended Food Scores for Pre-schoolers (ARFS-P) index.
- To assess the ARFS-P's ability to characterize nutrient intakes in young children.
- To evaluate the relationship between ARFS-P scores and consumption of nutrient-dense foods versus discretionary choices.
Main Methods:
- The ARFS-P was developed from a 120-item food frequency questionnaire with eight sub-scales, scored from 0 to 73.
- Validation involved 142 children (mean age 4 years) in rural New South Wales, Australia.
- Linear regressions were used to correlate ARFS-P scores with nutrient intakes.
Main Results:
- High correlations were observed between total ARFS-P scores and intakes of most macronutrients and micronutrients (e.g., protein, vitamins A, C, and β-carotene).
- The ARFS-P positively correlated with consumption of fruits and vegetables.
- Conversely, ARFS-P scores negatively correlated with intake of discretionary items like sugar-sweetened drinks and packaged snacks.
Conclusions:
- The ARFS-P is a valid and reliable tool for characterizing nutrient intakes in children aged two to five years.
- The index effectively differentiates between healthy and unhealthy food consumption patterns.
- Future research should explore the ARFS-P's utility in longitudinal dietary monitoring and clinical management.
Background:
Diet quality tools provide researchers with brief methods to assess the nutrient adequacy of usual dietary intake. This study describes the development and validation of a pediatric diet quality index, the Australian Recommended Food Scores for Pre-schoolers (ARFS-P), for use with children aged two to five years.
Methods:
The ARFS-P was derived from a 120-item food frequency questionnaire, with eight sub-scales, and was scored from zero to 73. Linear regressions were used to estimate the relationship between diet quality score and nutrient intakes, in 142 children (mean age 4 years) in rural localities in New South Wales, Australia.
Results:
Total ARFS-P and component scores were highly related to dietary intake of the majority of macronutrients and micronutrients including protein, β-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin A. Total ARFS-P was also positively related to total consumption of nutrient dense foods, such as fruits and vegetables, and negatively related to total consumption of discretionary choices, such as sugar sweetened drinks and packaged snacks.
Conclusion:
ARFS-P is a valid measure that can be used to characterise nutrient intakes for children aged two to five years. Further research could assess the utility of the ARFS-P for monitoring of usual dietary intake over time or as part of clinical management.
