Annals of Epidemiology
Volume 14, Issue 10 , Pages 778-785, November 2004

Impact of season of food frequency questionnaire administration on dietary reporting

From Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN (J.H.F., D.S., Y.G., X.-O.S., W.W., W.Z.); and Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China (F.J., D.-K.L., Y.-T.G.).

Received 3 November 2003; accepted 24 February 2004. published online 19 August 2004.

Purpose

Foods consumed near the time of food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) administration may prime the memory, such that FFQ responses emphasize recently consumed foods. This study investigates the effect of season of FFQ administration, a proxy for the recent diet, on FFQ responses.

Methods

FFQ data from 74,958 Shanghai Women's Health Study (SWHS) subjects were compared with FFQ data from these subjects by season of FFQ administration (i.e., winter, spring, summer, and fall). All analyses were adjusted for age, BMI, and energy intake. Furthermore, quintile categories derived from all study subjects were compared with categories derived from the distribution of subjects recruited in the same season.

Results

Compared with the study group as a whole, subjects completing the FFQ in winter reported higher intakes of meat (2.1%), vegetable (3.9%), fish (3.1%), and soy foods (4.1%), but lower fruit (− 3.9%) intake. Subjects completing the FFQ in summer reported lower than average meat (− 2.0%), vegetable (− 3.2%), fish (− 2.3%), and soy food (− 4.6%) intakes, but greater fruit intake (0.9%). Completion of the FFQ in spring and fall usually led to intermediate differences from the group average, although fruit intake was 5.9% higher among subjects completing the FFQ in the fall. Variations across macronutrients and micronutrients by season of FFQ administration were smaller. If seasonal FFQ reporting is ignored, up to 13% of subjects would be classified to a different diet intake exposure category. However, reclassification was always to an adjacent category.

Conclusions

FFQ responses varied with season of FFQ administration, consistent with theory that current diet intake influences reporting of habitual past diet intake. However, season of FFQ administration did not alter dietary exposure category assignments sufficiently to effect interpretation of most epidemiologic studies.

Key words: Diet Assessment, Memory Recall, Memory Retrieval, Food Frequency Questionnaire, Bias, China

Selected Abbreviations and Acronyms: FFQ, food frequency questionnaire, g/d, grams/day, SWHS, Shanghai Women's Health Study, BMI, body mass index (kg/m2), Q1–Q5, quintiles (1–5), kg, kilogram, OR, odds ratio, WHR, waist-to-hip ratio, IRB, institutional review board, kcal, kilocalorie

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 This work supported by NCI grant RO1CA70867 to the Shanghai Women's Health Study. This work was supported by NCI grant RO1CA70867 (PI: Wei Zheng).

PII: S1047-2797(04)00061-4

doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2004.02.002

Annals of Epidemiology
Volume 14, Issue 10 , Pages 778-785, November 2004

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