Development and use of an on-line semi-quantitative food- frequency questionnaire to evaluate calcium and iron intake

Objective: The objective of this study was to develop an online semiquantitative foodfrequency questionnaire for the evaluation of calcium and iron intake. Methodology: Research was conducted through the Folha newspaper online website. Thirty internet users, of both genders, aged 21 to 45 years, were selected. Information obtained from food records of 4 days (8RA) in two consecutive months was compared to that from an online QSFA filled out by participants in the third month. Pearson’s correlation was used. Intake data was adjusted by energy and covariance. Results: The correlation of the results of intake obtained by both methods after adjustment and correction for variance was 0.52 for calcium and –0.02 for iron. Conclusion: Results showed that the Online Food Frequency Questionnaire could be considered a good method to evaluate average calcium intake in this group. Nevertheless, the conditions (n, intake levels) were not adequate to evaluate average iron intake.

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