Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2006 May;16(3):107-16.
doi: 10.2188/jea.16.107.

Impact of the revision of a nutrient database on the validity of a self-administered food frequency questionnaire (FFQ)

Junko Ishihara  1 , Manami Inoue, Minatsu Kobayashi, Sachiko Tanaka, Seiichiro Yamamoto, Hiroyasu Iso, Shoichiro Tsugane; JPHC FFQ Validation Study Group
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Impact of the revision of a nutrient database on the validity of a self-administered food frequency questionnaire (FFQ)

Junko Ishihara et al. J Epidemiol. 2006 May.

Abstract

Background: Revision of the national nutrient database in 2000 had a strong impact on the absolute level of estimated nutrient intake in dietary assessments. However, whether it influenced the ranking of individuals by estimated intake, a more important function in epidemiologic studies, has not been investigated. Here, we investigated the effect of this revision of the nutrient database on the validity of a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) used to estimate nutrient intake in the Japan Public Health Center-based prospective Study (JPHC Study).

Methods: Subjects were a subsample of the JPHC Study who volunteered to participate in the validation study of the FFQ. Validity of the FFQ was evaluated by reference to the 28-day weighed dietary records as a gold standard. Nutrient intake according to the FFQ was recalculated using the revised database, and the results were compared to those using the previous database. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients (CCs) between intakes estimated by the FFQ and dietary records were computed using the revised database, and were compared to CCs computed using the previous database.

Results: For most of the nutrients, mean intake increased or decreased significantly using the revised database. However, no notable change was seen for the CC between estimated intake according to dietary records and FFQ when the revised database was used for calculation. Differences in the point estimates of the CCs ranged from -0.14 to 0.15. Likewise, CCs between biomarkers and estimated intake according to FFQ were similar for the two databases.

Conclusion: Despite changes in intake levels for many nutrients, the validity of our FFQ using rank correlation by nutrient intake was not influenced by revision of the nutrient database in Japan.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Data collection sequence in the JPHC FFQ Validation Study.
DR: 28-day dietary records
FFQV: food frequency questionnaire for validity
FFQR: food frequency questionnaire for reproducibility
BLD: blood collection; URN: urine collection
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Willett W. Nutrition Epidemiology. 2nd ed. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; 1998.
    1. Resource Council; Science and Technology Agency; the Government of Japan. Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan, the fifth revised edition. Tokyo: Printing Bureau, Ministry of Finance; 2002.
    1. Council for Science and Technology; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the Government of Japan. Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan, the fifth revised and enlarged edition. Tokyo: Printing Bureau, Ministry of Finance; 2005.
    1. The Study Circle for Health and Nutrition Information. Kokumin Eiyo no Genjou (Results of National Nutrition Survey in Japan, 2002, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan). Tokyo, Japan: Daiichi Shuppan Publishers; 2004. (in Japanese)
    1. Matsuda-Inoguchi N, Nakatsuka H, Watanabe T, Shimbo S, Higashikawa K, Ikeda M. Estimation of nutrient intake by the new version of Japanese food composition tables in comparison with that by the previous version. Tohoku J Exp Med 2001; 194: 229-39. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms