[Reliability of the questionnaire method of studying nutrition]

The authors studied the significance of the one-day questionnaire method in a randomized sample of men aged 40-59 years, living in one of the districts of Moscow. The questionnaire was performed twice by the same physicians, with an interval averaging 26.3 +/- 7.5 months between the first and second questionnaire. The examinees did not receive any recommendations as to the changes in the nutrition pattern. Analysis of the mean magnitudes of food consumption revealed no significant differences in the parameters under consideration (consumption of protein, fat and fatty acids, carbohydrates including qualitatively different carbohydrates, alcohol, cholesterol and caloricity). Consideration of the pair ratios of the correlation between the characteristics of the foods under study demonstrated a statistical significance of the correlations of the magnitudes that reflect the consumption of total fat, saturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, starch, alcohol and overall caloricity. Thus, the one-day questionnaire method provides significant results upon an analysis of the group data on the whole. Meanwhile an analysis of individual food consumption also demonstrates the significance of the consumption characteristics with respect to some of the foods.