DEVELOPING A RELATIVELY VALIDATED AND REPRODUCIBLE FOOD FREQUENCY QUESTIONNAIRE IN BAGHDAD, IRAQ

Abstract

Nutritional assessment is essential in the evaluation of individuals’ health status. this study seeks to develop and validate a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) that can be used as a nutritional assessment tool in epidemiological studies. a stratified random sampling enrolled sixty-five participants from Baghdad university college of medicine. participants were asked to fill a four days food upon which the questionnaire was developed. the participants were asked to fill the questionnaire based on their food intake in the last year. the data was entered using a food application, and the data source for the food nutritional values was obtained from different food composition tables. the serving size was assessed based on the Canadian nutritional society guidelines. the validation and reliability of the questionnaire were evaluated by comparing food intake of the records and the questionnaires using paired mean difference and Pearson correlation coefficient. the energy was adjusted using the nutrient density method. the mean difference between the records and questionnaire was 151.3 kcal, 7.61, 10.45, 10.24 gram for energy, fat, carbohydrate, and protein, respectively. the correlation coefficient between the record and the questionnaire was 0.829, 0.583, 0.323, and 0.547 for energy, fat, carbohydrate, and protein, respectively. in conclusion, this is the first valid food frequency questionnaire that was shown to be valid and reliable in providing a nutritional assessment of dietary intake in Iraq. it requires more efforts to be considered as a national tool for dietary assessment.