Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T10:49:57.118Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Dietary assessment tools for developing countries for use in multi-centric, collaborative protocols

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2006

Noel W Solomons*
Affiliation:
Center for Studies of Sensory Impairment, Aging and Metabolism (CeSSIAM), Guatemala City, Guatemala CeSSIAM-in-Guatemala, c/o PO Box 02-5339, Section 3163/GUATEMALA, Miami, FL 33102-5339, USA
Roxana Valdés-Ramos
Affiliation:
National Perinatology Institute, Mexico City, Mexico
*
*Corresponding author
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In recent years, increasing interest in the format of multi-centric studies among different populations in developing nations has evolved in the field of health surveys and epidemiology. Dietary intake data are most often part of these cross-cultural and cross-national collaborative efforts. Various questions have been raised about the appropriate endeavours for dietetics and nutritional sciences in developing societies, the instruments available for application, and the pitfalls and caveats in their use. An important consideration is that studies be hypothesis-driven and not mere ‘fishing expeditions’ of unfocused data gathering. All known dietary intake measurement tools are within the purview of developing country research, but they often must be adapted individually and differentially to suit a given population. In a multi-centric context, this is complicated. The watchword should be collecting comparable information across sites, not using identical approaches. Choice of dietary intake measurement tools must be honed to the hypotheses and assumptions, on the one hand, and the exigencies and pitfalls of working in the developing country milieu, in which linguistics, seasonality, migration, uncommonness of food systems and ethical considerations present barriers and caveats, on the other. Within the hypotheses, the assumptions regarding the penetration of the measured exposures must be borne in mind. Multi-centre studies in developing countries have relevance and importance in the context of food security, diet and disease, eating behaviour and satiety regulation, and nutritional anthropology.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © CAB International 2002

References

1Solomons, Nw. Plant-based diets are traditional in developing countries: 21st century challenges for better nutrition and health. Asia Pac. J. Clin. Nutr. 2000; 9(Suppl.): S41–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2Ogle, BM, Grivetti, LE. Legacy of the chameleon: edible wild plants in the kingdom of Swaziland, southern Africa. Cultural, ecological, nutritional study. Part II. Demographics, species availability and dietary use, analysis by ecological zone. Ecol. Food Nutr. 1985; 17: 130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3Kunaraattanaapruk, K, Chokkanapitak, J, Uttamavaatin, P, Muktabhaant, B, Lowirakorn, S, Saowakontha, S. Yearly household record of food from the forest for home consumption by rural villagers in north-east Thailand. Food Nutr. Bull. 1998; 19: 13–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4Solomons, NW. Demographic and nutritional trends among the elderly in developed and developing regions. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 2000; 54(Suppl. 3): S2–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5Wahlqvist, ML, Davies, L, Hsu-Hage, BH-H, Kouris-Blazos, A, Scrimshaw, NS, Steen, B, eds. Food Habits in Later Life: A Cross-Cultural Approach [CD-ROM electronic edition]. Sydney: Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition/United Nations University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
6de Groot, LCPGM, van Staveren, WA, Hautvast, JGAJ, eds. Euronut–SENECA. Nutrition and the elderly in Europe. Proceedings of the First European Congress on Nutrition and Health in the Elderly, The Netherlands, December 1991. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 1991; 45(Suppl. 3): 1196.Google Scholar
7van Staveren, WA, de Groot, LCPMG, Haveman-Nies, A. The SENECA study: potentials and problems in relating diet to survival over ten years. Public Health Nutr. 2002; 5: 901–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8Andrews, GR, Esterman, AJ, Braunack-Mayer, AJ, Rungie, CM. Ageing in the Western Pacific – A Four-country Study. Western Pacific Reports and Studies No. 1. Manila: WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific, 1986.Google Scholar
9Wahlqvist, ML. ‘Malnutrition’ in the aged: the dietary assessment. Public Health Nutr. 2002; 5: 911–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10Wahlqvist, ML, Kouris-Blazos, A, Hage, B, Lo, CS, Gracey, M, Sullivan, H, et al. Food Habits in Later Life: A Cross-cultural Study. Preliminary results from communities in Australia, Greece, China and Sweden. Age Nutr. 1992; 3: 151–4.Google Scholar
11Herman, D, Solomons, NW, Mendoza, I, Gonzales, C, Qureshi, AK. Anthropometric measures and indices of body composition among Guatemalan elderly: relationship with self-rated health and activities of daily living and comparison with other sites in the ‘Food Habits in Later Life’ multicentre study. Asia Pac. J. Clin. Nutr. 1998; 7: 5564.Google Scholar
12Charlton, KE, Bunn, AE, Lombard, CJ, Marais, AD. Body composition assessment of older coloured South Africans: no association between obesity and conventional cardiovascular risk factors. S. Afr. J. Food Sci. Nutr. 1996; 86: 123–30.Google Scholar
13Charlton, KE, Wolmarans, P, Kruger, M, Labadarios, D, Marais, AD, Lombard, CJ. Micronutrient status of older coloured South Africans. S. Afr. J. Food Sci. Nutr. 1998; 88: 653–8.Google Scholar
14Gross, R, Solomons, NW, Barba, CVC, de Groot, LCPGM, Khor, G-L, eds. Development of a protocol to study the interactions of nutrition, ageing and urbanization in developing countries: Cross-Cultural Research on the Nutrition of Older Subjects (CRONOS). Food Nutr. Bull. 18 (1997) 217305Google Scholar
15Gross, R. CRONOS (Cross-Cultural Research on the Nutrition of Older Subjects). Food Nutr. Bull. 1997; 18: 267303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16Kvalbein, A. Nutritional status and diet of Indonesian elderly, West-Java. Thesis, Nordic School of Nutrition, University of Oslo, Oslo, 1996Google Scholar
17Guiao, JL. Nutritional status of the elderly in urban (middle income and low income) and rural areas in the Philippines. Masters thesis, University of Indonesia, Jakarta, 1996.Google Scholar
18Tam, TTT. Determinants of nutritional status of free-living elderly and middle-aged individuals living in underprivileged area of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Masters thesis, University of Indonesia, 1996.Google Scholar
19Mazariegos, M, Balladares, M, Johnston, A, Montenegro, G, Hernandez, L, Villagran, A, et al. Cardiovascular risk factors in Guatemalans living in Guatemala City [abstract]. FASEB J. 2000; 14: A482.Google Scholar
20World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR). Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective. Washington, DC: WCRF/AICR, 1997.Google Scholar
21Barrett-Connor, E. Nutrition epidemiology: how do we know what they ate? Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1991; 54(Suppl. 1): 182S–7S.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22Gittlesohn, J. Opening the box: intrahousehold food allocation in rural Nepal. Soc. Sci. Med. 1991; 33: 1141–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23Pao, EM, Cypel, YS. Estimation of dietary intake. In: Ziegler, EE, Filer, LJ Jr, eds. Present Knowledge in Nutrition. Washington, DC: ILSI Press, 1996; 498507.Google Scholar
24Gibson, RS, Ferguson, EL. An Interactive 24-hour Recall for Assessing the Adequacy of Iron and Zinc Intakes in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: ILSI Press, 1999.Google Scholar
25Willett, WC, Sampson, L, Stampfer, MJ, Rosner, B, Bain, C, Witschi, J, et al. Reproducibility and validity of a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Am. J. Epidemiol. 1985; 122: 5165.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
26Martin-Moreno, JM, Boyle, P, Gorgojo, L, Maisonneuve, P, Fernandez-Rodriguez, JC, Salvini, S, et al. Development and validation of a food frequency questionnaire in Spain. Int. J. Epidemiol. 1993; 22: 512–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
27Campos, H, Willett, WC, Peterson, RM, Siles, X, Bailey, SM, Wilson, PW, et al. Nutrient intake comparisons between Framingham and rural and urban Puriscal, Costa Rica. Associations with lipoproteins, apolipoproteins, and low density lipoprotein particle size. Arterioscler. Thromb. 1991; 11: 1089–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28Romieu, I, Hernández-Avila, M, Rivera, JA, Ruel, MT, Parra, S. Dietary studies in countries experiencing a health transition: Mexico and Central America. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1997; 65(Suppl.): 1159S–65S.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
29Hernández-Avila, M, Romieu, I, Parra, S, Hernández-Avila, J, Madrigal, H, Willett, W. Validity and reproducibility of a food frequency questionnaire to assess dietary intake of women living in Mexico City. Salud Pub. Mex. 1998; 40: 133–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
30Valdés-Ramos, R, Solomons, NW, Mendoza, I, Anderson, AS. Concordance of rural Guatemalan diets with the cancer prevention guidelines of the World Cancer Research Fund: estimates from existing dietary intake instrument data [abstract]. FASEB J. 1999; 13: A606.Google Scholar
31Valdés-Ramos, R, Mendoza, I, Solomons, NW. Concordance of dietary intake with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans among adults in rural ‘Santa Rosa’ province, Guatemala. Nutr. Res. 2001; 21: 8191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
32Joachim, G. Sources of variability in the reproducibility of food frequency questionnaires. Nutr. Health 1998; 12: 181–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
33Ferguson, LR. Micronutrients, dietary questionnaires and cancer. Biomed. Pharmacother. 1997; 51: 337–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
34Willett, W. Nutritional Epidemiology, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35Margetts, B, Nelson, M. Design Concepts in Nutritional Epidemiology, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36Mendoza, I, Saenz de Tejada, E, Sanchez, ME, Solomons, NW. Dietary pattern of pre-school children during diarrhea in a coffee-growing area of rural Guatemala. Ecol. Food Nutr. 1996; 35: 2541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
37Franke, AA, Custer, LJ, Tanaka, Y. Isoflavones in human breast milk and other biological fluids. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1998; 68(Suppl. 6): 1466S–73S.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
38Campoy, C, Olea-Serrano, F, Jiménez, M, Bayes, R, Canabati, F, Rosales, MJ, et al. Diet and organochlorine contaminants in women of reproductive age under 40 years old. Early Hum. Dev. 2001; 65(Suppl.): S173–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
39Brown, KH, Dewey, KG, Allen, L, Saadeh, RJ. Complementary Feeding of Young Children in Developing Countries: A Review of Current Scientific Knowledge. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1998.Google Scholar
40Kohlmeier, L, Bellach, B. Exposure assessment error and its handling in nutritional epidemiology. Annu. Rev. Public Health 1995; 16: 4359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
41Solomons, NW. Reducing measurement error in nutritional epidemiology. In: Hin, CY, Wai, TMK, Siong, TE, Noor, MI, eds. Nutritional Challenges and Frontiers Toward the Year 2000. Proceedings of the VI Asian Congress of Nutrition. Kuala Lumpur: The Nutrition Society of Malaysia, 1992; 612–5.Google Scholar
42Sanchez-Castillo, CP, James, WPT. Accurate assessment of the quantitative significance of different sources of salt in the diet. Arch. Latinoam. Nutr. 1994; 44: 145–50.Google ScholarPubMed
43Wu-Lueng, W, Flores, M. Tablas de Composicio'n de Alimentos para Uso en América Latina. Guatemala: Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP), 1961.Google Scholar
44Simoons, FJ. The geographic hypothesis and lactose malabsorption. A weighing of the evidence. Am. J. Dig. Dis. 1978; 23: 963–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
45Pelto, GH, Urgello, J, Allen, LH, Chavez, A, Martinez, H, Meneses, L, et al. Household size, food intake and anthropometric status of school-age children in a highland Mexican area. Soc. Sci. Med. 1991; 33: 1135–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
46Stowers, JM, Ewen, SBW. Possible dietary factors in the induction of diabetes and its inheritance in man, with studies in mice. Proc. Nutr. Soc. 1991; 50: 287–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
47Riley, RT, Norred, WP, Bacon, CW. Fungal toxins in foods: recent concerns. Annu. Rev. Nutr. 1993; 13: 167–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
48Dreosti, IE. Antioxidant polyphenols in tea, cocoa, and wine. Nutrition 2000; 16: 692–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
49Awad, AB, Fink, CS. Phytosterols as anticancer dietary components: evidence and mechanism of action. J. Nutr. 2000; 130: 2127–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
50Krinsky, NI. The antioxidant and biological properties of the carotenoids. Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 1998; 854: 443–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
51Garrett, JL, Ruel, MT, eds. Achieving Urban Food and Nutrition Security in the Developing World. Focus 3. Vision 2020. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute, 2000.Google Scholar
52Wahlqvist, WL, Kouris-Blazos, A, Hsu-Hage, BH. Aging, food, culture and health. SE Asian J. Trop. Med. Public Health 1997; 28(Suppl. 2): 100–12.Google ScholarPubMed
53Kusumayati, A, Gross, R. Ecological and geographic characteristics predict nutritional status of communities: rapid assessment of poor villages. Health Policy Plan. 1998; 13: 408–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
54Teufel, NI. Development of culturally competent food-frequency questionnaires. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1997; 65(Suppl. 4): 1173S–8S.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
55Pi-Sunyer, FX. Energy balance: role of genetics and activity. Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 1997; 819: 2935.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
56Jenkins, DJ, Wolever, TM, Taylor, RH, Barker, H, Fielden, H, Baldwin, JM, et al. Glycemic index of foods: a physiological basis for carbohydrate exchange. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1981; 34: 362–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
57Roberts, SB. High-glycemic index foods, hunger, and obesity: is there a connection? Nutr. Rev. 2000; 58: 163–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
58Milton, K. Hunter–gatherer diets – a different perspective [editorial]. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2000; 71: 665–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
59Trowell, HC, Burkitt, DP. Western Diseases: Their Emergence and Prevention. London: Edward Arnold, 1981.Google Scholar
60Monteiro, CA, D'A Benicio, MH, Conde, WL, Popkin, BM. Shifting obesity trends in Brazil. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 2000; 54: 342–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
61Murray, CDL, Lopez, AD. Global Comparative Assessment in the Health Sector. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1994.Google Scholar
62Martorell, R, Khan, LK, Hughes, ML, Grummer-Strawn, LM. Obesity in women from developing countries. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 2000; 54: 247–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
63Freudenheim, JL. A review of study designs and methods of dietary assessment in nutritional epidemiology of chronic disease. J. Nutr. 1993; 123(Suppl. 2): 401–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
64Kant, AK, Schatzkin, A, Ziegler, RG. Dietary diversity and subsequent cause-specific mortality in the NHANES-I epidemiologic follow-up study. J. Am. Coll. Nutr. 1995; 14: 233–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
65Drewnowski, A, Henderson, SA, Shore, AB, Fischler, C, Preziosi, P, Hercberg, S. Diet quality and dietary diversity in France: implications for the French paradox. J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 1996; 96: 663–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
66Truswell, AS. Dietary recommendations, goals and guidelines. S. Afr. Med. J. 1994; 84(Suppl.): 5457.Google Scholar
67World Health Organization (WHO). Preparation and Use of Food-Based Dietary Guidelines: Report of a Joint FAO/WHO Consultation. WHO Technical Report Series No. 880. Geneva: WHO, 1998.Google Scholar
68Haddad, L, Ruel, MT, Garrett, JL. Are urban poverty and undernutrition growing? Some newly assembled evidence. World Dev. 1999; 27: 1891–904.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
69Ruel, MT, Garrett, JL, Morris, SS, Maxwell, D, Oshaug, A, Engle, P, et al. Urban Challenges to Food and Nutrition Security: A Review of Food Security, Health, and Caregiving in the Cities. Food and Nutrition Consumption Division Discussion Paper No. 51. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute, 1998.Google Scholar
70Coates, RJ, Monteilh, CP. Assessments of food-frequency questionnaires in minority populations. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1997; 65(Suppl. 4): 1108S–15S.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
71Morris, KL, Zemel, MB. Glycemic index, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Nutr. Rev. 1999; 57: 273–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed