Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 31, Issue 3, September 2000, Pages 214-224
Preventive Medicine

Regular Article
Development and Validation of an Instrument to Assess Child Dietary Fat Intake

https://doi.org/10.1006/pmed.2000.0701Get rights and content
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Abstract

Background. brief dietary assessment instrument to assess dietary intakes of total fat, saturated fatty acids (SFA), and cholesterol in young children was developed and validated.

Methods. Young children and their parent or primary caretaker were recruited from a general primary care health center and local Head Start programs. Dietary records, entered and analyzed using the Minnesota Nutrition Data System, were used to calculate children's mean dietary intakes. Stepwise linear regression analysis was used to select questionnaire items that best predicted total fat, SFA, and dietary cholesterol intakes.

Results. This yielded a 17-item Child Dietary Fat Questionnaire (CDFQ); 9 questions correlated with total fat intake (r = 0.68, P < 0.0001); 15 questions correlated with SFA intake (r = 0.75, P < 0.0001); and 4 questions correlated with dietary cholesterol intake (r = 0.57, P < 0.0001). The test-retest reliabilities of the CDFQ in predicting children's dietary intakes of total fat, SFA, and cholesterol were 0.41, 0.66, and 0.64, respectively. The criterion-based validity of the CDFQ, evaluated against 4 days of dietary records, yielded correlations of 0.54 (P < 0.0001) for total fat, 0.36 (P < 0.01) for SFA, and 0.55 (P < 0.0001) for dietary cholesterol intake.

Conclusions. The 17-item CDFQ is a brief, easy-to-use dietary assessment instrument that could be used to identify children with high, as well as low, dietary intakes of total fat, SFA, and/or cholesterol.

Keywords

child nutrition
nutrition assessment
diet
total fat
dietary cholesterol
saturated fatty acids.

Cited by (0)

Research was supported, in part, by Grant-in-Aids from the American Heart Association, New York Affiliate (91-029G), and the American Heart Association, National Center (94-1018).

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To whom reprint requests should be addressed at Research Institute, Bassett Healthcare, One Atwell Road, Cooperstown, NY 13326-1394. Fax:(607) 547-6861. E-mail: [email protected].