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
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2009 May;12(5):651-9.
doi: 10.1017/S1368980008002668. Epub 2008 Jun 12.

Evaluation of a web-based, pictorial diet history questionnaire

Jeannette M Beasley  1 , Amanda Davis, William T Riley
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Evaluation of a web-based, pictorial diet history questionnaire

Jeannette M Beasley et al. Public Health Nutr. 2009 May.

Abstract

Objective: To develop and evaluate a pictorial, web-based version of the NCI diet history questionnaire (Web-PDHQ).

Design: The Web-PDHQ and paper version of the DHQ (Paper-DHQ) were administered 4 weeks apart with 218 participants randomised to order. Dietary data from the Web-PDHQ and Paper-DHQ were validated using a randomly selected 4 d food record recording period (including a weekend day) and two randomly selected 24 h dietary recalls during the 4 weeks intervening between these two diet history administrations.

Setting: Research office in Reston, VA, USA.

Participants: Computer-literate men and women recruited through newspaper advertisements.

Results: Mean correlation of energy and the twenty-five examined nutrients between the Web-PDHQ and Paper-DHQ was 0.71 and 0.51, unadjusted and energy-adjusted by the residual method, respectively. Moderate mean correlations (unadjusted 0.41 and 0.38; energy-adjusted 0.41 and 0.34) were obtained between both the Web-PDHQ and Paper-DHQ with the 4 d food record on energy and nutrients, but the correlations between the Web-PDHQ and Paper-DHQ with the 24 h recalls were modest (unadjusted 0.31 and 0.29; energy-adjusted 0.37 and 0.26). A subset of participants (n 48) completing the Web-PDHQ at the initial visit performed a retest on the same questionnaire 1 week later to determine repeatability, and the unadjusted mean correlation was 0.82.

Conclusions: These data indicate that the Web-PDHQ has comparable repeatability and validity to the Paper-DHQ but did not improve the relationship of the DHQ to other food intake measures (e.g. food records, 24 h recall).

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study Participant Flow in the Web-based Pictorial DHQ trial.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Subar AF, Thompson FE, Kipnis V, Midthune D, Hurwitz P, McNutt S, et al. Comparative validation of the Block, Willett, and National Cancer Institute food frequency questionnaires: the Eating at America's Table Study. Am.J.Epidemiol. 2001 Dec 15;154(12):1089–1099. - PubMed
    1. Freedman LS, Potischman N, Kipnis V, Midthune D, Schatzkin A, Thompson FE, et al. A comparison of two dietary instruments for evaluating the fat-breast cancer relationship. Int.J.Epidemiol. 2006 May 3; - PubMed
    1. Schatzkin A, Kipnis V, Carroll RJ, Midthune D, Subar AF, Bingham S, et al. A comparison of a food frequency questionnaire with a 24-hour recall for use in an epidemiological cohort study: results from the biomarker-based Observing Protein and Energy Nutrition (OPEN) study. Int.J.Epidemiol. 2003 Dec;32(6):1054–1062. - PubMed
    1. Subar AF, Kipnis V, Troiano RP, Midthune D, Schoeller DA, Bingham S, et al. Using intake biomarkers to evaluate the extent of dietary misreporting in a large sample of adults: the OPEN study. Am.J.Epidemiol. 2003 Jul 1;158(1):1–13. - PubMed
    1. Kristal AR, Peters U, Potter JD. Is it time to abandon the food frequency questionnaire? Cancer Epidemiol.Biomarkers Prev. 2005 Dec;14(12):2826–2828. - PubMed

Publication types