DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURALLY COMPETENT FOOD-FREQUENCY QUESTIONNAIRES

Health-related behaviors, including food choices, are culturally deter mined. Culture is the medium through which people interpret their worl d and the tool individuals use to guide decisions. Recognition of the effect of culture on health-related behaviors has led public health in vestigators, including nutritionists, to address the concepts of cultu ral relevancy as applied to intervention strategies and assessment tec hniques. Drawing on a project involving the development of food-freque ncy questionnaires for Native American communities, I provide definiti ons of cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, cultural appropriaten ess, and cultural competency. Cultural competency, which involves work ing within the cultural context of a culturally distinct population, i s the approach most likely to reduce miscommunication between investig ators and participants and to yield reliable and valid data. Step-by-s tep guidelines for creating a culturally competent food-frequency ques tionnaire have been developed.