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
. 2014 Dec;17(12):2700-14.
doi: 10.1017/S1368980013003157. Epub 2013 Nov 18.

Validation and reproducibility of dietary assessment methods in adolescents: a systematic literature review

Garden Tabacchi  1 , Emanuele Amodio  1 , Maria Di Pasquale  1 , Antonino Bianco  2 , Monèm Jemni  3 , Caterina Mammina  1
Affiliations

Validation and reproducibility of dietary assessment methods in adolescents: a systematic literature review

Garden Tabacchi et al. Public Health Nutr. 2014 Dec.

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the present work was to determine what dietary assessment method can provide a valid and accurate estimate of nutrient intake by comparison with the gold standard.

Design: A MEDLINE, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science, Cochrane and related references literature review was conducted on dietary assessment methods for adolescents reporting the validity and/or reproducibility values. A study quality assessment on the retrieved FFQ was carried out according to two different scoring systems, judging respectively the quality of FFQ nutrition information and of FFQ validation and calibration.

Setting: The present review considered adolescents attending high schools and recruited in hospitals or at home.

Subjects: The target of the review was the healthy adolescent population in the age range 13-17 years.

Results: Thirty-two eligible papers were included and analysed separately as 'original articles' (n 20) and 'reviews' (n 12). The majority (n 17) assessed the validation and reproducibility of FFQ. Almost all studies found the questionnaires to be valid and reproducible (r > 0·4), except for some food groups and nutrients. Different design and validation issues were highlighted, such as portion-size estimation, number of food items and statistics used.

Conclusions: The present review offers new insights in relation to the characteristics of assessment methods for dietary intake in adolescents. Further meta-analysis is required although the current review provides important indications on the development of a new FFQ, addressing the need for a valid, reproducible, user-friendly, cost-effective method of accurately assessing nutrient intakes in adolescents.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Selection process flow of the original articles and reviews on the validation and/or reproducibility of dietary assessment methods in adolescents
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lietz G, Barton KL, Longbottom PJ et al. (2002) Can the EPIC food-frequency questionnaire be used in adolescent populations? Public Health Nutr 5, 783–789. - PubMed
    1. Rockett HRH, Berkeya CS & Colditz GA (2003) Evaluation of dietary assessment instruments in adolescents. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 6, 557–562. - PubMed
    1. Lampe JW & Rock CL (2008) Biomarkers and their use in nutrition intervention. In Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease, 2nd ed., pp. 187–201 [AM Coulston and CJ Boushey, editors]. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
    1. Thompson FE & Subar AF (2008) Dietary assessment methodology. In Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease, 2nd ed., pp. 5–46 [AM Coulston and CJ Boushey, editors]. San Diego, CA: Academic Press..
    1. Ngo J, Engelen A, Molag M et al. (2009) A review of the use of information and communication technologies for dietary assessment. Br J Nutr 101, Suppl. 2, S102–S112. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources