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Validation of a food-frequency questionnaire for cohort studies in rural Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2007

Keiko Ogawa ,
Yoshitaka Tsubono ,
Yoshikazu Nishino ,
Yoko Watanabe ,
Takayoshi Ohkubo ,
Takao Watanabe ,
Haruo Nakatsuka ,
Nobuko Takahashi ,
Mieko Kawamura  and
Ichiro Tsuji
...Show all authors
Keiko Ogawa
Affiliation:
Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan
Yoshitaka Tsubono*
Affiliation:
Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan
Yoshikazu Nishino
Affiliation:
Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan
Yoko Watanabe
Affiliation:
Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan
Takayoshi Ohkubo
Affiliation:
Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan
Takao Watanabe
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Health, Miyagi University of Education, Sendai, Japan
Haruo Nakatsuka
Affiliation:
School of Nursing, Miyagi University, Sendai, Japan
Nobuko Takahashi
Affiliation:
Faculty of Human Sciences, Sendai Shirayuri Women's College, Sendai, Japan
Mieko Kawamura
Affiliation:
Faculty of Human Life and Environmental Science, Kochi State Women's University, Sendai, Japan
Ichiro Tsuji
Affiliation:
Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan
Shigeru Hisamichi
Affiliation:
Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan
*
*Corresponding author: Email ytsubono@metamedica.com
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Abstract

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Objectives:

To examine the validity and reproducibility of a self-administered food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) used for two cohort studies in Japan.

Design:

Cross-sectional study.

Setting:

Two rural towns in the Miyagi Prefecture, in north-eastern Japan.

Subjects:

Fifty-five men and 58 women.

Results:

A 40-item FFQ was administered twice, 1 year apart. In the mean time, four 3-day diet records (DRs) were collected in four seasons within the year. We calculated daily consumption of total energy and 15 nutrients, 40 food items and nine food groups from the FFQs and the DRs. We computed Spearman correlation coefficients between the FFQs and the DRs. With adjustment for age, total energy and deattenuation for measurement error with the DRs, the correlation coefficients for nutrient intakes ranged from 0.25 to 0.58 in men and from 0.30 to 0.69 in women, with median of 0.43 and 0.43, respectively. Median (range) of the correlation coefficients was 0.35 (−0.30 to 0.72) in men and 0.34 (−0.06 to 0.75) in women for food items and 0.60 (−0.10 to 0.76) and 0.51 (0.28–0.70) for food groups, respectively. Median (range) of the correlation coefficients for the two FFQs administered 1 year apart was 0.49 (0.31–0.71) in men and 0.50 (0.40–0.64) in women for nutrients, 0.43 (0.14–0.76) and 0.45 (0.06–0.74) respectively for food items, and 0.50 (0.30–0.70) and 0.57 (0.39–0.66) respectively for food groups. Relatively higher agreement percentages for intakes of nutrients and food groups with high validity were obtained together with lower complete disagreement percentages.

Conclusions:

The FFQ has a high reproducibility and a reasonably good validity, and is useful in assessing the usual intakes of nutrients, foods and food groups among a rural Japanese population.

Keywords

ValidityReproducibilityFood frequency questionnaire
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , April 2003 , pp. 147 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © CABI Publishing 2003

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