Assessment of nutrient intakes of picky-eating Chinese preschoolers using a modified food frequency questionnaire
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Assessment of nutrient intakes of picky-eating Chinese preschoolers using a modified food frequency questionnaire Flora Yin-Ying Kwok, Yvonne Yi-Fong Ho, Chung-Mo Chow, Christabella Yat-Nam So, Ting-Fan Leung Hong Kong, China
Original article
Background: Dietary assessment is crucial for monitoring nutritional status of young children. This study applied a modified Chinese food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess nutrient intakes of young picky-eating Hong Kong children. Methods: Nutrient intakes were obtained by FFQ and 3-day food record (3DFR) in 29 picky-eating children aged 44.8±9.2 months who participated in a randomised controlled trial of a new milk formula. Results: When compared with 3DFR, FFQ overreported energy intake by 283 kcal (26.5%) at baseline and 237 kcal (21.4%) at end-of-study, and also overestimated intakes of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. At baseline, FFQ and 3DFR classified 34.4%-65.5% of subjects into the same tertiles for most nutrients. These methods showed weak-to-moderate agreement in measuring most nutrients, with 3DFR showing a trend towards a systematic increase in the differences with increasing nutrient intake. Conclusion: Our FFQ shows promising results for assessing nutrient intakes in picky-eating Chinese preschoolers. World J Pediatr 2013;9(1):58-63 Key words: Chinese; food frequency questionnaire; nutrition; preschooler
Introduction
D
ietary assessment is crucial for monitoring the nutritional status of children, examining association between diet and health, and identifying dietary factors that are associated with individual clinical conditions. However, measuring diet in very young children is difficult because of the rapid changes in food habits of toddlers, the need to rely on parental report, and the questionable ability of parents to accurately report their children's diet when other caregivers, such as at day care, also feed the child. Food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) reported by parents appears to be a reasonably valid method to collect dietary data in children even in situations when parents do not observe all meals and snacks eaten by their children.[1,2] Most published FFQs were designed and validated in Caucasian populations.[2-8] Populationspecific FFQ must be used due to wide variations in dietary habits between different populations. Woo et al [9] developed an FFQ for Chinese adults in Hong Kong, which has subsequently been adapted for use in school-age children and elderly.[10-12] This study adapted the above Chinese FFQ appropriately to reflect the portion sizes typically consumed by young children and applied the modified FFQ to assess nutrient intakes in picky-eating Hong Kong preschool children. A 3-day food record (3DFR) was used as our reference method.
Methods
Author Affiliations: Department of Pediatrics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong (Kwok FY, Ho YY, Chow CM, Leung TF); University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada (So CY) Corresponding Author: Ting Fan Leung, MD, Department of
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