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A comparison of five questionnaires to assess alcohol consumption in a Mediterranean population

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2007

L Serra-Majem ,
JF Santana-Armas ,
L Ribas ,
E Salmona ,
JM Ramon ,
J Colom  and
L Salleras
L Serra-Majem*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, PO Box 550, Las Palmas 35080, Canary Islands, Spain Community Nutrition Research Center, Barcelona Science Park, University of Barcelona, Spain
JF Santana-Armas
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, PO Box 550, Las Palmas 35080, Canary Islands, Spain
L Ribas
Affiliation:
Community Nutrition Research Center, Barcelona Science Park, University of Barcelona, Spain
E Salmona
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, PO Box 550, Las Palmas 35080, Canary Islands, Spain
JM Ramon
Affiliation:
Community Nutrition Research Center, Barcelona Science Park, University of Barcelona, Spain
J Colom
Affiliation:
Department of Health and Social Security, Autonomous Government of Catalonia, Spain
L Salleras
Affiliation:
Community Nutrition Research Center, Barcelona Science Park, University of Barcelona, Spain Department of Health and Social Security, Autonomous Government of Catalonia, Spain
*
*Corresponding author: Email [email protected]
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Abstract

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Objective:

To evaluate the reliability of alcohol consumption measured by five different dietary methods in the Catalan Nutrition Survey (1992–1993).

Design:

The different questionnaires used were: (1) two 7-day food records, (2) five items addressing alcoholic beverages in a 76-item food-frequency questionnaire, (3) a 1-week recall of 13 alcoholic beverages, (4) a 13-item alcoholic beverages frequency questionnaire and (5) two 24-hour recalls.

Subjects:

Ninety-three of the 120 adults (aged 20 to 70 years) initially recruited completed the questionnaires and provided a peripheral blood sample.

Results:

Mean daily alcohol intakes as assessed by the questionnaires were very similar. Beer was the alcoholic beverage most frequently consumed, followed by wine and liquor. Eighty-two per cent of the study population consumed less than 20 g of alcohol per day. No biochemical parameters were significantly correlated with alcohol intake estimated from the questionnaires.

Conclusions:

We found a satisfactory level of reproducibility and validity in the pattern of alcohol consumption across different levels and types of alcoholic beverage intake. We also found that the self-administered 13-item questionnaire and the 1-week recall were the best techniques to measure moderate or low alcohol consumption, suggesting that the two methods are the most suitable to assess overall alcohol intake in the general population.

Keywords

Alcohol consumptionQuestionnairesValidityMediterranean countriesEpidemiologyNutrition survey
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , August 2002 , pp. 589 - 594
Copyright
Copyright © CABI Publishing 2002

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