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Objective To compare the relative validity of food group intakes derived from a comprehensive self-administered diet history questionnaire (DHQ) and a brief-type DHQ (BDHQ) developed for the assessment of Japanese diets during the previous month using semi-weighed dietary records (DR) as a reference method. Design Between November 2002 and September 2003, a 4 d DR (covering four non-consecutive days), a DHQ (150-item semi-quantitative questionnaire) and a BDHQ (fifty-eight-item fixed-portion-type questionnaire) were completed four times (once per season) at 3-month intervals. Setting Three areas in Japan: Osaka, Nagano and Tottori. Subjects Ninety-two Japanese women aged 31-69 years and ninety-two Japanese men aged 32-76 years. Results Median food group intakes were estimated well for approximately half of the food groups. No statistically significant differences were noted between a 16 d DR and the first DHQ (DHQ1) or between the DR and the first BDHQ (BDHQ1) in fifteen (44 %) and fifteen (52 %) food items for women and in fourteen (41 %) and sixteen (55 %) food items for men, respectively, indicating that both questionnaires estimated median values reasonably well. Median Spearman's correlation coefficients with the DR were 0·43 (range: -0·09 to 0·77) for DHQ1 and 0·44 (range: 0·14 to 0·82) for BDHQ1 in women, with respective values of 0·44 (range: 0·08 to 0·87) and 0·48 (range: 0·22 to 0·83) in men, indicating reasonable ranking ability. Similar results were observed for mean values of the four DHQ and BDHQ. Conclusions In terms of food intake estimates, both the DHQ and the BDHQ showed reasonable validity.

The nutrition literature and authoritative reports increasingly recognise the concept of ultra-processed foods (UPF), as a descriptor of unhealthy diets. UPFs are now prevalent in diets worldwide. This review aims to identify and appraise the studies on healthy participants that investigated associations between levels of UPF consumption and health outcomes. This involved a systematic search for extant literature; integration and interpretation of findings from diverse study types, populations, health outcomes and dietary assessments; and quality appraisal. Of 43 studies reviewed, 37 found dietary UPF exposure associated with at least one adverse health outcome. Among adults, these included overweight, obesity and cardio-metabolic risks; cancer, type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases; irritable bowel syndrome, depression and frailty conditions; and all-cause mortality. Among children and adolescents, these included cardio-metabolic risks and asthma. No study reported an association between UPF and beneficial health outcomes. Most findings were derived from observational studies and evidence of plausible biological mechanisms to increase confidence in the veracity of these observed associations is steadily evolving. There is now a considerable body of evidence supporting the use of UPFs as a scientific concept to assess the ‘healthiness’ of foods within the context of dietary patterns and to help inform the development of dietary guidelines and nutrition policy actions.

The association between farm production diversity and dietary diversity in rural smallholder households was recently analysed. Most existing studies build on household-level dietary diversity indicators calculated from 7d food consumption recalls. Herein, this association is revisited with individual-level 24 h recall data. The robustness of the results is tested by comparing household- and individual-level estimates. The role of other factors that may influence dietary diversity, such as market access and agricultural technology, is also analysed. A survey of smallholder farm households was carried out in Malawi in 2014. Dietary diversity scores are calculated from 24 h recall data. Production diversity scores are calculated from farm production data covering a period of 12 months. Individual- and household-level regression models are developed and estimated. Data were collected in sixteen districts of central and southern Malawi. Smallholder farm households (n 408), young children (n 519) and mothers (n 408). Farm production diversity is positively associated with dietary diversity. However, the estimated effects are small. Access to markets for buying food and selling farm produce and use of chemical fertilizers are shown to be more important for dietary diversity than diverse farm production. Results with household- and individual-level dietary data are very similar. Further increasing production diversity may not be the most effective strategy to improve diets in smallholder farm households. Improving access to markets, productivity-enhancing inputs and technologies seems to be more promising.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the U.S. and globally. Dietary risk factors contribute to over half of all CVD deaths and CVD-related disability. The aim of this narrative review is to describe methods used to assess diet quality and the current state of evidence on the relationship between diet quality and risk of CVD. The findings of the review will be discussed in the context of current population intake patterns and dietary recommendations. Several methods are used to calculate diet quality: (1) a priori indices based on dietary recommendations; (2) a priori indices based on foods or dietary patterns associated with risk of chronic disease; (3) exploratory data-driven methods. Substantial evidence from prospective cohort studies shows that higher diet quality, regardless of the a priori index used, is associated with a 14–29% lower risk of CVD and 0.5–2.2 years greater CVD-free survival time. Limited evidence is available from randomized controlled trials, although evidence shows healthy dietary patterns improve risk factors for CVD and lower CVD risk. Current dietary guidance for general health and CVD prevention and management focuses on following a healthy dietary pattern throughout the lifespan. High diet quality is a unifying component of all dietary recommendations and should be the focus of national food policies and health promotion.

The advent of the internet and smartphone technology has allowed dietary assessment to reach the 21st century! The variety of foods available on the supermarket shelf is now greater than ever before. New approaches to measuring diet may help to reduce measurement error and advance our understanding of nutritional determinants of disease. This advance provides the potential to capture detailed dietary data on large numbers of individuals without the need for costly and time-consuming manual nutrition coding. This aim of the present paper is to review the need for new technologies to measure diet with an overview of tools available. The three main areas will be addressed: (1) development of web-based tools to measure diet; (2) use of smartphone apps to self-monitor diet; (3) improving the quality of dietary assessment through development of an online library of tools. A practical example of the development of a web-based tool to assess diet myfood24 (www.myfood24.org) will be given exploring its potential, limitations and challenges. The development of a new food composition database using back-of-pack information will be described. Smartphone apps used to measure diet with a focus on obesity will be reviewed. Many apps are unreliable in terms of tracking, and most are not evaluated. Accurate and consistent measurement of diet is needed for public health and epidemiology. The choice of the most appropriate dietary assessment method tends to rely on experience. The DIET@NET partnership has developed best practice guidelines for selection of dietary assessment tools, which aim to improve the quality, consistency and comparability of dietary data. These developments provide us with a step-change in our ability to reliably characterise food and nutrient intake in population studies. The need for high-quality, validated systems will be important to fully realise the benefits of new technologies.

Background: A comprehensive self-administered diet history questionnaire (DHQ: 150-item semi-quantitative questionnaire) and a brief self-administered DHQ (BDHQ: 58-item fixed-portion-type questionnaire) were developed for assessing Japanese diets. We compared the relative validity of nutrient intake derived from DHQ with that from the BDHQ, using semi-weighed 16-day dietary records (DRs) as reference. Methods: Ninety-two Japanese women aged 31 to 69 years and 92 Japanese men aged 32 to 76 years completed a 4-nonconsecutive-day DR, a DHQ, and a BDHQ 4 times each (once per season) in 3 areas of Japan (Osaka, Nagano, and Tottori). Results: No significant differences were seen in estimates of energy-adjusted intakes of 42 selected nutrients (based on the residual method) between the 16-day DRs and the first DHQ (DHQ1) or between the DR and the first BDHQ (BDHQ1) for 18 (43%) and 14 (33%) nutrients, respectively, among women and for 4 (10%) and 21 (50%) nutrients among men. The median (interquartile range) Pearson correlation coefficients with the DR for energy-adjusted intakes of the 42 nutrients were 0.57 (0.50 to 0.64) for the DHQ1 and 0.54 (0.45 to 0.61) for the BDHQ1 in women; in men, the respective values were 0.50 (0.42 to 0.59) and 0.56 (0.41 to 0.63). Similar results were observed for the means of the 4 DHQs and BDHQs. Conclusions: The DHQ and BDHQ had satisfactory ranking ability for the energy-adjusted intakes of many nutrients among the present Japanese population, although these instruments were satisfactory in estimating mean values for only a small number of nutrients.

Because diet quality (DQ) is associated with risk of chronic disease and is a common construct assessed in health-related research, validated tools to assess DQ are needed that have low respondent and researcher burden. Thus, content experts develop the Short Healthy Eating Index (sHEI) tool and an associated scoring system. The sHEI scoring system was then refined using a classification and regression tree (CRT) algorithm methodology with an iterative feedback process with expert review and input. The sHEI scoring system was then validated using a concurrent criterion validation process that included the sHEI DQ scores (calculated from responses from 50 participants) being compared to the participants’ Healthy Eating Index scores derived from 24 h recalls. The total HEI score from the CRT algorithm highly correlated with the 24 h recall HEI score (0.79). For individual food group items, the correlation between the CRT algorithm scoring and the 24 h recall data scoring ranged from 0.44 for refined grains to 0.64 for whole fruits. The sHEI appears to be a valid tool for estimating overall dietary quality and individual items (with correlations > 0.49) for fruits, vegetables, dairy, added sugar, sugar from sugar-sweetened beverages, and calcium.

Online self-administered data collection, by reducing the logistic burden and cost, could advantageously replace classical methods based on dietitian's interviews when assessing dietary intake in large epidemiological studies. Studies comparing such new instruments with traditional methods are necessary. Our objective was to compare one NutriNet-Santé web-based self-administered 24 h dietary record with one 24 h recall carried out by a dietitian. Subjects completed the web-based record, which was followed the next day by a dietitian-conducted 24 h recall by telephone (corresponding to the same day and using the same computerised interface for data entry). The subjects were 147 volunteers aged 48–75 years (women 59·2 %). The study was conducted in February 2009 in France. Agreement was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for foods and energy-adjusted Pearson's correlations for nutrients. Agreement between the two methods was high, although it may have been overestimated because the two assessments were consecutive to one another. Among consumers only, the median of ICC for foods was 0·8 in men and 0·7 in women (range 0·5–0·9). The median of energy-adjusted Pearson's correlations for nutrients was 0·8 in both sexes (range 0·6–0·9). The mean Pearson correlation was higher in subjects ≤ 60 years (P = 0·02) and in those who declared being ‘experienced/expert’ with computers (P = 0·0003), but no difference was observed according to educational level (P = 0·12). The mean completion time was similar between the two methods (median for both methods: 25 min). The web-based method was preferred by 66·1 % of users. Our web-based dietary assessment, permitting considerable logistic simplification and cost savings, may be highly advantageous for large population-based surveys.

Assessing dietary exposure or nutrient intakes requires detailed dietary data. These data are collected in France by the cross-sectional Individual and National Studies on Food Consumption (INCA). In 2014-2015, the third survey (INCA3) was launched in the framework of the European harmonization process which introduced major methodological changes. The present paper describes the design of the INCA3 survey, its participation rate and the quality of its dietary data, and discusses the lessons learned from the methodological adaptations. Two representative samples of adults (18-79 years old) and children (0-17 years old) living in mainland France were selected following a three-stage stratified random sampling method using the national census database. Food consumption was collected through three non-consecutive 24 h recalls (15-79 years old) or records (0-14 years old), supplemented by an FFQ. Information on food supplement use, eating habits, physical activity and sedentary behaviours, health status and sociodemographic characteristics were gathered by questionnaires. Height and body weight were measured.ParticipantsIn total, 4114 individuals (2121 adults, 1993 children) completed the whole protocol. Participation rate was 41·5% for adults and 49·8% for children. Mean energy intake was estimated as 8795 kJ/d (2102 kcal/d) in adults and 7222 kJ/d (1726 kcal/d) in children and the rate of energy intake under-reporters was 17·8 and 13·9%, respectively. Following the European guidelines, the INCA3 survey collected detailed dietary data useful for food-related and nutritional risk assessments at national and European level. The impact of the methodological changes on the participation rate should be further studied.

To assess the relative validity of a new, web-based, self-administered 24 h dietary recall, the R24W, for assessment of energy and nutrient intakes among French Canadians. Each participant completed a 3d food record (FR) and the R24W on three occasions over a 4-week period. Intakes of energy and of twenty-four selected nutrients assessed by both methods were compared. Québec City metropolitan area. Fifty-seven women and fifty men (mean (sd) age: 47·2 (13·3) years). Equivalent proportions of under-reporters were found with the R24W (15·0%) and the FR (23·4%). Mean (sd) energy intake from the R24W was 7·2% higher than that from the FR (10 857 (3184) kJ/d (2595 (761) kcal/d) v. 10 075 (2971) kJ/d (2408 (710) kcal/d); P<0·01). Significant differences in mean nutrient intakes between the R24W and the FR ranged from -54·8% (i.e. lower value with R24W) for niacin to +40·0% (i.e. higher value with R24W) for alcohol. Sex- and energy-adjusted deattenuated correlations between the two methods were significant for all nutrients except Zn (range: 0·35-0·72; P<0·01). Cross-classification demonstrated that 40·0% of participants were classified in the same quartile with both methods, while 40·0% were classified in the adjacent quartile and only 3·6% were grossly misclassified (1st v. 4th quartile). Analysis of Bland-Altman plots revealed proportional bias between the two assessment methods for 8/24 nutrients. These data suggest that the R24W presents an acceptable relative validity as compared with the FR for estimating usual dietary intakes in a cohort of French Canadians.