Abstract: The goal of the study was to develop and validate a weekly, semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire for low-income women. The food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was developed from an already existing, validated 195-item FFQ that was based on a standard reference period of 1-month. Mean daily servings of each food item in the original 195-item FFQ were calculated to determine the most frequently consumed food items. Emphasis on these items reduced the resultant FFQ to 95 items. This new weekly instrument was compared to 3-day diet records to establish validity in a sample of women participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). For reliability, the FFQ was administered a second time, separated by a 1-month
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Food frequency questionnaires are acknowledged as a preferred dietary assessment tool due to their ability to save cost and time, despite several limitations such as measurement error (5). The choice of a reference period for an FFQ depends on the nature of the study and the population of interest. Traditionally, FFQs are based on a reference period of one month or greater in order to reflect habitual dietary intake of individuals. However, the use of FFQs to measure diets over a shorter duration also has been indicated in the literature. To date FFQs based on a reference period of one week have been developed and tested for validity in adolescents (6-8) college students (9, 10), youth with type I diabetes (11), and healthy adult volunteers (12). The goal of this research was to develop a 95-item, weekly semi-quantitative FFQ tailored to a population of low-income …show more content…
Subjects in Phase 2 were women who participated in SNAP (≤ 130% of the Federal Poverty Level), ages 18-39 years, and who did not report pregnancy or any serious illness. Seventy-two women who met the eligibility criteria for Phase 2 were recruited from the partner agencies of the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. Energy intakes outside the range of 500-4500 kcal were considered invalid, and two women were excluded due to energy intakes 4500 kcal, resulting in a final sample of 70 subjects for the validation. The mean age of the selected sample was 36.78 years, and 59% of the participants were Hispanic (Table 1). A subgroup of 40 women from the final sample was recruited for the reliability
Food frequency questionnaires are acknowledged as a preferred dietary assessment tool due to their ability to save cost and time, despite several limitations such as measurement error (5). The choice of a reference period for an FFQ depends on the nature of the study and the population of interest. Traditionally, FFQs are based on a reference period of one month or greater in order to reflect habitual dietary intake of individuals. However, the use of FFQs to measure diets over a shorter duration also has been indicated in the literature. To date FFQs based on a reference period of one week have been developed and tested for validity in adolescents (6-8) college students (9, 10), youth with type I diabetes (11), and healthy adult volunteers (12). The goal of this research was to develop a 95-item, weekly semi-quantitative FFQ tailored to a population of low-income …show more content…
Subjects in Phase 2 were women who participated in SNAP (≤ 130% of the Federal Poverty Level), ages 18-39 years, and who did not report pregnancy or any serious illness. Seventy-two women who met the eligibility criteria for Phase 2 were recruited from the partner agencies of the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. Energy intakes outside the range of 500-4500 kcal were considered invalid, and two women were excluded due to energy intakes 4500 kcal, resulting in a final sample of 70 subjects for the validation. The mean age of the selected sample was 36.78 years, and 59% of the participants were Hispanic (Table 1). A subgroup of 40 women from the final sample was recruited for the reliability