Self-administered diet history questionnaire developed for health education: a relative validation of the test-version by comparison with 3-day diet record in women.

A self-administered diet history questionnaire has been developed for the use in health education in Japan. The relative validity of the test-version was examined using 3-day diet record (DR) as a reference method. Subjects were mildly hypercholesterolemic 47 women aged 38-69 years living in Hikone, Japan. The questionnaire provided close estimation of nutrients compared to the DR (mean of the 3-days), 1-25% differences between the two methods were observed for total energy and 17 nutrients examined. The differences were in general smaller for macronutrients, 1-3%, than for micronutrients, 1-25%. Pearson correlation coefficients between the questionnaire and the DR (mean of the 3-days) ranged from 0.16 for niacin to 0.60 for saturated fatty acid (mean = 0.41). The energy-adjustment using regression analysis and the correction of attenuation due to error from a limited number of days of DR slightly improved the results. The correlations ranged from 0.19 for niacin to 0.75 for saturated fatty acid (mean = 0.48). Average 37 and 6% subjects were classified into same quartile and opposite quartile respectively between the two methods. This questionnaire may be useful to assess individual nutrient intake level at least for the subjects examined.