Comparative analysis between a brief nutrition screening survey and validated food frequency questionnaire among physically active college students

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the agreement between a 61-item Nutrition Screening Survey (NSS) and 127-item validated Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ).

Participants

Forty-seven college students (male, n = 29; female, n = 18), age 21.7 ± 0.4 years, BMI of 23.5 ± 0.4 kg/m².

Methods

Participants completed the NSS, Block FFQ, and anthropometric measurements. Pearson’s correlation, paired sample t test, and Bland–Altman plot evaluated agreement between the assessments.

Results

Moderate to strong associations between assessments (0.61–0.89, p < 0.001) were identified for meals/day, snacks/day, calories, carbohydrate, fiber, grains, non-starchy vegetables, potatoes, legumes, fruit, yogurt, cheese, and eggs. Mean daily meals/day, calories, fat, fiber, grains, fruit, milk, and eggs did not significantly differ between surveys. The Bland–Altman plot analyses indicated no proportional bias for calories, fat, fiber, grains, fruit, milk, and eggs.

Conclusions

The NSS and Block FFQ display reasonable agreement, supporting use of the NSS for evaluating a range of dietary components among physically active college students.

Keywords:

• Nutrition analysis
• energy deficiency
• nutritional risk
• diet quality

Disclosure statement

The authors have no personal or financial interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of California State University, Long Beach.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported, in part, through the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) grant #8TL4GM118980-02; US Department of Education, Project Hogar: Hispanic Opportunities for Graduate Access and Retention.