Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28630693›Full record

ReviewJournal of nutritional science2017

Quality of food-frequency questionnaire validation studies in the dietary assessment of children aged 12 to 36 months: a systematic literature review.

Amy Lovell, Rhodi Bulloch, Clare R Wall, Cameron C Grant

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Journal of nutritional science, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
34citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

34 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Trial
  4. A Short Questionnaire for Evaluating Mediterranean Diet Adherence and Nutritional Sustainability: Validation in Turkish Adults.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2026
    Article
  5. Observational
  6. Food Frequency Questionnaires Validated in Brazil: A Scoping Review.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2026
    Article
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Review
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Observational
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Amy LovellDiscipline of Nutrition, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Rhodi BullochDiscipline of Nutrition, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Clare R WallDiscipline of Nutrition, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Cameron C GrantDepartment of Paediatrics: Child and Youth Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A child's diet is an important determinant of growth and development. Because of this, the accurate assessment of dietary intake in young children remains a challenge. A systematic search of studies validating FFQ methodologies in children 12 to 36 months of age was completed. English-language articles published until March 2016 were searched using three electronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL). Quality assessment of the identified studies was carried out using The Reduced Summary Score and EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned (EURRECA) scoring system. Seventeen studies were included and categorised according to whether they reflected long-term (≥7 d) or short-term (<7 d) intake, or used a biomarker. A total score for each micronutrient was calculated from the mean of the correlation coefficients weighted by the study quality score. At least three validation studies per micronutrient were required for inclusion. Fifteen studies (83 %) that considered validity of the FFQ in assessing nutrient intakes had quality scores from 2·5 to 6·0. Of those, ten (67 %) studies found FFQ to have good correlations in assessing dietary intake (>0·4). Of the nutrients with three or more studies available, FFQ validated using a reference method reflecting short-term intake had a good weighted correlation for Ca (0·51), and acceptable weighted correlations for vitamin C (0·31) and Fe (0·33). Semi-quantitative FFQ were shown to be valid and reproducible when estimating dietary intakes at a group level, and are an acceptable instruments for estimating intakes of Ca, vitamin C and Fe in children 12 to 36 months of age.

Indexed as

24-HR, 24-h recallDietary assessment methodsEURRECA, EURopean Micronutrient RECommendations AlignedFood-frequency questionnairesInfantsValidityWFR, weighed food record

Identifiers

PMID28630693
PMCPMC5468742

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.