Validation and Reproducibility of a Semi-Qualitative Food Frequency Questionnaire for Assessment of Sodium Intake in Iranian Population Publisher Pubmed



Mohammadifard N¹ ; Grau N² ; Khosravi A³ ; Esmaillzadeh A⁴ ; Feizi A⁵ ; Abdollahi Z⁶ ; Sarrafzadegan N^{2, 7}
Source: Nutrition Journal Published:2022

Abstract

Background: Few semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaires (SFFQ)s has yet been developed to assess sodium intake in Middle East region. This study was performed to validate a SFFQ for assessment of sodium consumption and food groups΄ contribution to sodium intake. Methods: This study was performed on 219 healthy participants including 113 adults aged ≥19 years and 106 children aged 6–18 years in Isfahan, Iran. They were administered two SFFQ at the beginning and after 1 year to evaluate the reproducibility. The validity of SFFQ for assessment of sodium intake was compared with 24-h urine sodium and twelve 24-h dietary recalls which were completed monthly during a year as two standard methods. Results: Correlation coefficient between the contribution of food groups to sodium intake based on SFFQ and 24-h dietary recalls varied from 0.04 for legumes (P = 0.667) to 0.47 for added salt (P < 0.001). There was a significant correlation between the estimated total sodium intake based on SFFQ and both standard methods (P < 0.01). Intraclass correlation coefficient (95% CI) between first and second SFFQ had a diverse range from 0.10 (-0.05, 0.17) for fats and oils to 0.49 (0.28, 0.69) for bread. According to the Bland-Altman plots, we observed an acceptable level of agreement between the two methods for sodium intake. Conclusions: The SFFQ was a relatively valid and reproducible method for estimating sodium intake. Combination of this SFFQ with a valid prediction of 24-h urinary sodium excretion can be useful in achieving more accurate results. © 2022, The Author(s).