Validation Study of a Dietary Questionnaire for Assessing Exposure to Food-Borne Hazards

ABSTRACT

Assessing human exposure to food-borne hazards requires standardized assessment tools. The objective of this study was to validate a newly developed dietary assessment questionnaire to assess human exposure to food-borne hazards, which include dietary behavior and food consumption patterns such as eating frequency, types of food containers and cooking methods. A total of 216 adults were recruited for two questionnaire surveys (questionnaire 1 and 2) about 1 week apart with a 3 day diet record. Reproducibility was evaluated by comparing responses from questionnaires 1 and 2, and validity was checked by comparing responses from questionnaire 2 and the 3 day diet record. Comparisons were based on the percent agreement and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. The mean exact agreement of food containers at purchase between questionnaires 1 and 2 was 73.5%, for storing containers it was 71.9%, and for cooking methods it was 83.0%. The mean correlation coefficient for food intake frequency between questionnaires 1 and 2 was 0.71 (range, 0.50?0.83). The mean correlation coefficient of the food intake frequency between questionnaire 2 and the 3 day diet record was 0.21 (range, 0.04-0.48). The exact and adjacent agreement of food intake frequency quartile assessed by questionnaire 2 and the 3 day diet record was 65.4% (range, 51.0-82.1%). Although the correlation coefficient for food intake frequency between questionnaire 2 and the 3 day diet record was low, the exact and adjacent food intake frequency agreement was higher than 50% and reproducibility of the dietary behaviors exceeded 70%. Therefore, the questionnaire developed in this study could be applied to assess diets for the human exposure to food-borne hazards as a qualitative assessment in a large population.