Food frequency questionnaire for Japanese athletes: validation with junior high school athletes

Area of Science:

• Sports Nutrition
• Nutritional Epidemiology
• Adolescent Health

Background:

• Accurate dietary assessment is crucial for understanding the nutritional status of young athletes.
• Food Frequency Questionnaires (FFQs) are commonly used for dietary assessment, but their validity must be established for specific populations.
• The FFQJA was developed for Japanese athletes, but its applicability to younger age groups needed investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the validity of the Food Frequency Questionnaire for Japanese Athletes (FFQJA) in junior high school students.
• To assess the FFQJA's ability to accurately estimate nutrient and food group intake in adolescents.

Main Methods:

• Sixty-four junior high school soccer players (13-15 years old) completed the FFQJA and 3-day dietary records (DRs).
• Validation involved comparing FFQJA data with DRs using correlation coefficients (crude and energy-adjusted), percentage differences, and intraclass correlation coefficients.
• Classification validity was assessed using cross-classification analysis and kappa values.

Main Results:

• Median crude correlation coefficients ranged from 0.386 to 0.483 for food groups and nutrients, respectively.
• Median energy-adjusted correlation coefficients were similar, ranging from 0.384 to 0.477.
• Misclassification rates were low (3% for nutrients, 6% for food groups), indicating reasonable accuracy in categorization.

Conclusions:

• The FFQJA demonstrates validity for assessing dietary intake in Japanese junior high school soccer players.
• The FFQJA is a suitable tool for ranking and categorizing nutrient and food group consumption in this population.
• This finding supports the use of the FFQJA in future nutritional research and interventions for young athletes.