Swedish study validates diet survey tool for pregnant women
Researchers confirmed that a food frequency questionnaire reliably measures what pregnant Swedish women eat, offering a cost-effective alternative to intensive dietary tracking. The validation matters because maternal diet during pregnancy shapes long-term health risks—obesity, diabetes, heart disease—in both mother and child, making accurate nutrition assessment critical for public health planning and clinical trials.
Originaltitel: Validation of a food frequency questionnaire for pregnant Swedish women in the NorthPop Birth Cohort Study against repeated 24-hour recalls.
En validerad kost-frekvensfråga för gravida kan öka precisionen i framtida studier om diet och graviditetskomplikationer, vilket är kritiskt för regionala prenataprogram och kostråd. Forskare vid Umeå universitet testade ett frågeformulär (FFQ) mot den gyllene standarden — tre 24-timmarserinningar — hos 96 gravida kvinnor i NorthPop-kohorten. FFQ:n uppvisade godtagbar till mycket god korrelation för näringsämnen (medelvärde 0,45) och livsmedelsgrupper (0,55). Energijusteringen påverkade enskilda näringsamnen men bibehöll överensstämmelsen vid gruppanalys. Bland-Altman-analys och klassificeringsöverenstämmelse bekräftade acceptabel precision. Resultaten validerar FFQ:n för studiering av samband mellan kost under graviditet och långsiktiga hälsoeffekter som fetma, kardiovaskulär sjukdom och diabetes hos moders och avkomling. För inköpschefer inom mödravård är detta verktyg relevant för framtida evidensbaserad kostintervention och uppföljningsprotokoll.
BACKGROUND: Diet during pregnancy significantly influences maternal and offspring health outcomes, including long-term risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, asthma, allergic disease and diabetes. Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) are cost-effective tools for dietary assessment but require validation to ensure accuracy. The objective of this study was to assess the validity of an FFQ developed for pregnant women in the NorthPop Birth Cohort Study (NorthPop) in Sweden. METHODS: Pregnant women (n = 96) were recruited from NorthPop. Nutrient and food group intakes assessed by the FFQ were compared with intakes assessed by three 24-hour dietary recalls (24HR) using group mean comparisons, Spearman correlation coefficients, cross-classification, and Bland-Altman analysis. RESULTS: The FFQ showed acceptable to very good correlations for most nutrients and food groups. Mean deattenuated correlation coefficients were 0.45 (0.15 to 0.73) for nutrients and 0.55 (0.32 to 0.80) for food groups. Energy adjustment altered individual nutrient correlations, but the overall mean remained unchanged at 0.45 (0.11 to 0.84); however, it reduced the mean correlation for food groups to 0.49 (0.17 to 0.70). Analyses of mean intake, cross-classification, and Bland-Altman plots showed acceptable agreement between the FFQ and the 24HR reference method. CONCLUSIONS: The FFQ evaluated in this study is a valid tool for assessing dietary intake at the group level among pregnant women in the NorthPop cohort. The results support the use of this FFQ to study relationships between diet and disease and to identify dietary factors during pregnancy.