Validation of a Youth/Adolescent Food Frequency Questionnaire

✍ Scribed by Helaine R.H. Rockett; Melanie Breitenbach; A.Lindsay Frazier; Jelia Witschi; Anne M. Wolf; Alison E. Field; Graham A. Colditz

• Book ID: 115643303
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 122 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0091-7435
• DOI: 10.1006/pmed.1997.0200

✦ Synopsis

Background:

To address limited longitudinal nutrition data on children and adolescents, a self-administered food frequency questionnaire was designed for older children and adolescents. initially, the youth/adolescent questionnaire (yaq) was developed and demonstrated to be reproducible. this study was conducted to evaluate its validity.

Methods:

The form was administered twice to a sample of 261 youths (ages 9 to 18) at an approximate interval of 1 year (1993-1994), and three 24-hr dietary recalls were collected during this period. pearson correlation coefficients were calculated on nutrient data.

Results:

Validity was first evaluated by comparing the average of the three 24-hr recalls to the average of the two yaqs. similar mean nutrients were found by both methods. correlation coefficients between the mean energy-adjusted nutrients computed by the two methods ranged from 0.21 for sodium to 0.58 for folate. after correction for within-person error, the average correlation coefficient was 0.54, similar to that found among adults.

Conclusion:

A simple self-administered questionnaire completed by older children and adolescents can provide nutritional information about this age group.