[[alternative]]The development of a food frequency questionnaire for school children

[[abstract]]The purpose of this study was to develop a self-administered Chinese food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for school children. The development for the FFQ included three steps. The first step was to understand the pros and cons of various dietary assessments in children. The second step was to collect the children’s dietary data by 24-h recalls and to design the contents of the FFQ. Both food list and standardized portion sizes were developed using 24-h recall data from 197 school children respondents from “Family diet, nutrition and health study in Taipei metropolitan area”. The FFQ divides into five parts including breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and drink in consideration of the memory ability of children. Foods reported by these children (625 different foods) were grouped into 96 similar food items. Total 80 food items and standardized portion sizes were decided on the basis of their contribution to total intake of energy, protein, carbohydrate, fat, cholesterol, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin C, Fe and Ca, total 10 key nutrients of the study population, and represented over 90% of each of these nutrients. The third step was to analyze the adequacy of the food lists and potion size and conduct the pilot study of FFQ. The results showed the mean nutrient estimates accuracy rate for 10 selected key nutrients was 92%. The correlation coefficients between nutrients estimated by 24-h recalls and FFQ were 0.37~0. 78 (p<0.01). The results of the pilot study are following: First, senior grades of school children (mean age: 11.3±0.3) could complete FFQ in 15-20 minutes by self. Second, the invalid questionnaires are 29%. Third, because one-day food records by children had lower estimates generally, the correlation coefficients for energy and 16 nutrients intake ranged from 0.37 for calcium to 0.01 for niacin. Only vitamin C and calcium were significantly correlated with 2 methods (p