Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 26, Issue 6, November 1997, Pages 808-816
Preventive Medicine

Regular Article
Validation of a Youth/Adolescent Food Frequency Questionnaire

https://doi.org/10.1006/pmed.1997.0200Get rights and content

Abstract

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.

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    This work was supported in part by Grant DK46200 from the National Institutes of Health. G. A. Colditz is recipient of a Faculty Research Award from the American Cancer Society.

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