engleski

Validation of the folate food frequency questionnaire in vegetarians

Adequate folate status has an important role in the prevention of chronic and developmental diseases and is considered as a potential public health issue. Therefore, valid tools for measuring the vitamin intake are needed. In our previous study (Colić Barić et al. (in press) Int J Food Sci Nutr) a folate food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) designed to measure dietary folate equivalents (DFE) was developed and validated among adult women against serum and erythrocyte (RBC) folate and plasma homocysteine (Hcy). The aim of this study was to validate the FFQ in vegetarians (n=75). The Pearson correlation for folate intake and biomarkers was 0.41, 0.36 and -0.15 for serum and RBC folate and plasma Hcy, respectively. The quadratic weighted kappa for biomarkers was above 0.2 and the gross misclassification of subjects into quartiles was less than 10 %. The FFQ is a valid tool for measuring DFE intake in Croatian vegetarians.

food frequency questionnaire ; validation ; folate ; vegetarians

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