Abstract
The aim of this article is to report on the validity and internal consistency of a short food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to measure dietary intake in Australian adults. A total of 407 individuals completed the short FFQ. The Cronbach’s alpha of 0.66 indicated acceptable internal consistency for the FFQ. Content validity was measured using factor analysis showed that 35% of total variance was explained by factor analysis. The FFQ was also validated against 31 3-day food records (FR). No significant difference between average intake of energy, most macronutrients, and some micronutrients between two instruments was identified. An acceptable levels of correlation (0.39–0.69) was observed between the two instruments. Bland and Altman’s plots showed relative agreement in both instruments with potential bias in measuring iron and iodine. The current FFQ can be an acceptable tool to quickly measuring dietary intake in Australian adults.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge the support and help of the staffs at the MAU unit of the Gold Coast University Hospital and the Gold Coast City Council.
Disclosure statement
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.
Author’s contribution
S.K. and J.S. designed the study; S.K. collected and analysed the data, and drafted the article; J.S. contributed to the article preparation; D.D. contributed to data collection and article preparation; N.B. contributed to the design and article preparation.