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Validity of self-reported intakes of wine, beer and spirits in population studies
1Danish Epidemiology Science Center, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Copenhagen Hospital Corporation, Kommunehospitalet, Denmark.
Objective:
To compare data on intake of wine, beer and spirits from a frequency questionnaire with intake of each type of alcoholic beverage estimated from a dietary interview.
Design:
Cross-sectional study.
Setting:
The Danish MONICA study.
Subjects:
A randomly selected sub-sample of 244 women and 249 men aged 35-65 y.
Main Outcome Measure:
Differences in intake of beer, wine and spirits as reported by the frequency questionnaire and the diet history interview.
Results:
There was an overall agreement between the two methods, with very little or no systematic variation for all three alcoholic beverages.
Conclusion:
Compared to a more time consuming and thorough dietary interview, the traditional frequency questionnaires seem to sufficiently capture intakes of different types of alcohol. Bias in alcohol reporting by the frequency questionnaire does not seem responsible for the recently found decreased mortality among subjects with a daily intake of wine, nor the increased mortality from spirits drinking.