DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A SEMIQUANT ITATIVE FOOD FREQUENCY QUESTIONNAIRE BECAUSE OF INTERVIEWS IN THE POPULATION

An auto-administered semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire wa s developed to assess evolution of dietary habits in the Geneva popula tion. For this purpose 626 adults, aged 35 years or more and residents of Canton Geneva, were interviewed using a 24 hour recall technique. The questionnaire comprises the 80 food items or homogeneous food grou ps contributing to more than 90% of the intake in calories, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, alcohol, cholesterol, calcium vitamin D and ret inol, and to more than 85% of dietary fibers, carotene and iron. To co mplete the food frequency questionnaire, participants indicate for eac h of the 80 food items or groups their frequency of consumption and wh ether their usual portion is equivalent to a reference portion listed in the questionnaire (median portion in the sample), smaller (first qu artile of the portion distribution in the sample) or larger (third qua rtile of the portion distribution in the sample). The questionnaire ca n be filled in about 20 minutes. To test the new questionnaire bye sub mitted it to a sample of 27 men and 29 women randomly selected from th e 626 subjects who participated to the original survey. Mean intakes o btained using the food frequency questionnaire agree well with those o btained using the 24 hour recall for am subgroups defined by age, sex or nationality. The food frequency questionnaire tends to slightly und erestimate the absolute intakes of alcohol fibers and calcium since it is based on a subsample of all food items consumed according to the 2 4 hour recall interviews. These results suggest that the semi-quantita tive food frequency questionnaire is a good alternative to 24 hour rec alls to assess mean nutrient intakes in the adult population of Canton Geneva.