BRIEF ASSESSMENTS OF DIETARY BEHAVIOR IN-FIELD SETTINGS

Our research team is involved in ongoing research in both worksites an d medical office settings. These settings offer great potential for re aching individuals who would not otherwise participate in health promo tion, but they also place considerable constraints on assessment time and efforts, especially if one's goal is to attract a high and represe ntative proportion of employees or patients. This paper reports on our experience with measures of dietary behavior in these two settings. W e found it problematic to collect detailed assessments such as 4-day f ood records or comprehensive food frequency/history checklists in work sites ol medical office settings using population-based samples. Inste ad, we recommend and provide data on the utility of a dietary-fat scre ening instrument. and on the Food Habits Questionnaire (FHQ-Kristal, S hattuck. & Henry, 1990), a brief measure of dietary behaviors associat ed with high-fat eating patterns. The FHQ, in particular, was found to correlate well with other more costly and time-consuming methods of a ssessment, to be reliable and responsive to intervention effects, and to provide behavioral targets for intervention. The strengths and limi tations of these measures for tailoring intervention and assessing out comes are discussed.