Development of a food frequency questionnaire in a probabilistic sample of adults from Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Desenvolvimento de questionário de freqüência alimentar em amostra probabilística de adultos de Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

With the purpose of generating a list of foods for a food-frequency questionnaire, data from 24h dietary recalls on a typical day from a probabilistic sample of 1,724 adults of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were analyzed. The frequency of food intake, the total intake of energy and macronutrients and the relative contribution of each food item to total energy and macronutrient intake were calculated. The most frequently reported food items (> 50% of adults) were rice, coffee, beans, refined canesugar, and bread. Whole milk was consumed more frequently then skimmed milk or semi-skimmed milk. Beef was consumed by more adults than chicken, pork or fish. Approximately 90% of energy and macronutrients intake was explained by 65 food items. The list of food items generated in the present analysis is similar to those found in other samples of adults from urban areas in Brazil. It may be possible to generate a core list of common foods with addition of regional foods to be used nationally in urban areas of the country. Food Consumption; Diet Surveys; Epidemiologic Methods Introduction Shifts in epidemiological profiles coupled with a global rise in the burden of chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCD) have lead to increased research attention on a possible relationship between these diseases and life-style, particularly food intake and physical activity 1. Characterizing the pattern of food intake in a population is the swiftest way of identifying the risk of developing CNCDs secondary to diet. Given that current recommendations advise an active life style and control over food intake 2,3, validated instruments for assessing dietary patterns in the Brazilian population are needed. Food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) have been described by many authors as the most suitable method of identifying and describing dietary patterns in epidemiological studies 4 due to their low cost and ease of use. Several previous attempts to devise an FFQ for use in the Brazilian adult population have been undertaken 5. The first FFQ validated in Brazil was the instrument proposed by Sichieri & Everhart 6, which was based on information gathered from the National Food Consumption and Family Budget Survey (ENDEF) carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) between 1974 and 1975. The list of foods included the 61 most-frequently consumed foods according to the ENDEF, plus 12 food items deemed by the authors as important in the contemporary 2196 ARTIGO ARTICLE DEVELOPMENT OF A FOOD FREQUENCY QUESTIONNAIRE 2197 Cad. Saúde Pública, Rio de Janeiro, 26(11):2196-2204, nov, 2010 Brazilian diet but not included in the original ENDEF list 7. Based on the Sichieri & Everhart 6 or food intake recorded among convenient samples of healthy individuals or groups with a specific disease, many questionnaires were developed in Brazil for application in interviews, as self-reports or over the Internet 8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15. Recently, Fisberg et al.16 reported the creation of an FFQ among a population-based sample from the municipality of São Paulo, Brazil. The final FFQ comprised a list of 59 food items for men, 60 for women and 60 for both genders, with four portion sizes (small, medium, large and extra-large). The aim of the present study was to devise an FFQ specifically for assessing dietary intake of energy and macronutrients, based on food intake data from a probabilistic sample of adults from Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.