Reproducibility and validity of dietary patterns identified using factor analysis among Chinese populations

In the present study, we evaluated the reproducibility and validity of dietary patterns among Chinese adult populations. A random subsample of 203 participants (aged 31-80 years) from a community-based nutrition and health survey was enrolled. An eighty-seven-item FFQ was administered twice (FFQ1 and FFQ2) 1 year apart; four 3 consecutive day, 24-h dietary recalls (24-HDR, as a reference method) were performed between the administrations of the two FFQ every 3 months. Dietary patterns from three separate dietary sources were derived using factor analysis based on twenty-eight predefined food groups. Comparisons between dietary pattern scores were made by using Pearson's or intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), cross-classification analysis, weighted κ statistic and Bland-Altman plots; the four major dietary patterns identified from FFQ1, FFQ2 and 24-HDR were similar. Regarding reproducibility, ICC for z-scores between FFQ1 and FFQ2 were all >0·6 for dietary patterns. The 'animal and plant protein' pattern had the highest ICC of 0·870. For validity, the adjusted Pearson's correlation coefficients for dietary pattern z-scores between two FFQ and the mean of four 3 consecutive day 24-HDR ranged from 0·387 for the 'Chinese traditional' pattern to 0·838 for the 'animal and plant protein' pattern. More than 75 % of the participants were classified into the same or adjacent quartile, and <5 % were misclassified into opposite quartiles. The weighted κ ranged from 0·259 to 0·680. Bland-Altman plots indicated that no significant deviation was found between two dietary assessment methods. Our findings indicate a good reasonable reproducibility and a reasonable validity of dietary patterns derived by factor analysis in China.