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      A Review of Food Frequency Questionnaires Developed 
and Validated in Japan

      research-article
      1
      Journal of Epidemiology
      Japan Epidemiological Association
      food frequency questionnaire, validity, reproducibility, nutrient, food group

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          Abstract

          Background

          The food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) has been used throughout the world for epidemiological purposes. Because dietary habits vary greatly, the FFQ must be tailored for use with specific populations. The usefulness of FFQs in Japan was assessed by reviewing questionnaires developed and validated in that country.

          Methods

          A literature search was conducted to identify articles on the development and/or validation of FFQs for Japanese populations. For each FFQ identified, validation studies were used to abstract its characteristics and information. The correlation coefficients between diet records (DRs) and FFQ estimates and those between the same FFQs completed twice were used to evaluate validity and reproducibility, respectively, of the questionnaires.

          Results

          Twenty-one eligible FFQs were identified. They were found to be reasonably valid and reproducible. The median of correlation coefficients between DRs and FFQs ranged from 0.31 to 0.56 for target nutrients, and that between the same FFQs completed twice within a period of 9 months to 1 year ranged from 0.50 to 0.72. Relatively poor validity was found for FFQ estimates on consumption of potatoes, seaweed, sodium, niacin, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. For the purpose of analysis, FFQs were divided into long FFQs (97 or more food items) and short FFQs (<70 items); the former had slightly higher validity.

          Conclusion

          FFQs are useful for assessing dietary intake in Japan, although careful consideration is required for the food groups and nutrients for which FFQs had low validity.

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          Most cited references35

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          Self-administered diet history questionnaire developed for health education: a relative validation of the test-version by comparison with 3-day diet record in women.

          A self-administered diet history questionnaire has been developed for the use in health education in Japan. The relative validity of the test-version was examined using 3-day diet record (DR) as a reference method. Subjects were mildly hypercholesterolemic 47 women aged 38-69 years living in Hikone, Japan. The questionnaire provided close estimation of nutrients compared to the DR (mean of the 3-days), 1-25% differences between the two methods were observed for total energy and 17 nutrients examined. The differences were in general smaller for macronutrients, 1-3%, than for micronutrients, 1-25%. Pearson correlation coefficients between the questionnaire and the DR (mean of the 3-days) ranged from 0.16 for niacin to 0.60 for saturated fatty acid (mean = 0.41). The energy-adjustment using regression analysis and the correction of attenuation due to error from a limited number of days of DR slightly improved the results. The correlations ranged from 0.19 for niacin to 0.75 for saturated fatty acid (mean = 0.48). Average 37 and 6% subjects were classified into same quartile and opposite quartile respectively between the two methods. This questionnaire may be useful to assess individual nutrient intake level at least for the subjects examined.
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            Calibration of the dietary questionnaire for a multiethnic cohort in Hawaii and Los Angeles.

            The performance of the dietary questionnaire used in a multiethnic cohort study in Hawaii and Los Angeles was assessed in a calibration substudy that compared diet reported from the questionnaire with three 24-hour dietary recalls. For the calibration substudy, subjects from each of eight subgroups defined by sex and ethnic group (African-American, Japanese-American, Latino, and White) were chosen randomly from among the cohort members, and each participant's previous day's diet was assessed by telephone recall on three occasions over approximately 2 months. After completing the three 24-hour recalls, each calibration subject was sent a second questionnaire; 1,606 persons completed three recalls and a second questionnaire (127 to 267 per ethnic-sex group). This report describes correlation coefficients and calibration slopes for the relation between the 24-hour recalls and second questionnaire values for a selected set of macro- and micronutrients, as absolute intakes, nutrient densities, and calorie-adjusted nutrients. In all subgroups, estimates of the correlation between the questionnaire and 24-hour recalls were greater after energy adjustment (average correlations ranged from 0.57-0.74 for nutrient densities and from 0.55-0.74 for calorie-adjusted nutrients) than when absolute nutrient values were used (average range 0.26-0.57). For absolute nutrient intakes, the correlations were greatest for Whites, somewhat lower for Japanese-Americans and Latinos, and lowest for African-Americans. After energy adjustment, the difference between subgroups were diminished, and the correlations were generally highly satisfactory.
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              Relative Validity of a Short Food Frequency Questionnaire for Assessing Nutrient Intake versus Three-day Weighed Diet Records in Middle-aged Japanese

              BACKGROUND: Validation studies on brief food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) for measuring consumption of macro- and micro-nutrients for the general populace are not fully executed in Japan. METHODS: Two hundred and two middle-aged Japanese (73 males and 129 females) in Aich Prefecture, Japan completed an FFQ and 3day-weighed diet records (3d-WDRs) in February 2004. We compared intakes of energy and 26 nutrients computed with the FFQ against those with the 3d-WDRs as a reference. RESULTS: Mean daily intakes of selected nutrients determined with the FFQ were generally less than those with 3d-WDRs. The ratios assessed with the FFQ vs. 3d-WDRs (minimum - median - maximum) were distributed from 0.57 - 0.79 - 1.09 for males, and 0.61 - 0.86 - 1.04 for females. De-attenuated, log-transformed and energy-adjusted Pearson’s correlation coefficients between intakes of selected nutrients quantified with both devices were distributed from 0.12 - 0.45 - 0.86 and energy-adjusted Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were from 0.13 - 0.35 - 0.76, for males. The respective values for females were 0.10 - 0.38 - 0.66, and 0.11 - 0.34 - 0.47. Median percentages for exact agreement, agreement within adjacent categories, and disagreement according to quartile classification of the energy-adjusted nutrient intakes measured with both methods were 33, 74, and 5 for males, and 35, 76, and 7 for females, respectively. CONCLUSION: Satisfactorily high relative validity indices of most nutrient intakes computed with the FFQ were attained against those with the 3d-WDRs. The questionnaire therefore appears applicable for categorizing individuals according to consumption of energy and selected nutrients in dietary studies of middle-aged Japanese.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                J Epidemiol
                J Epidemiol
                JE
                Journal of Epidemiology
                Japan Epidemiological Association
                0917-5040
                1349-9092
                5 January 2009
                22 January 2009
                2009
                : 19
                : 1
                : 1-11
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Preventive Medicine/Biostatistics and Medical Decision Making, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
                Author notes
                Address for correspondence. Kenji Wakai, Department of Preventive Medicine/Biostatistics and Medical Decision Making, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 65 Tsurumai-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya 466-8550, Japan (e-mail: wakai@ 123456med.nagoya-u.ac.jp ).
                Article
                JE20081007
                10.2188/jea.JE20081007
                3924089
                19164867
                c51d9a3b-3a35-4dd2-9d18-6396222e36aa
                © 2009 Japan Epidemiological Association.

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 9 October 2008
                : 10 November 2008
                Categories
                Young Investigator Award Winner’s Special Article
                Nutrition

                food frequency questionnaire,validity,reproducibility,nutrient,food group

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