Rapid assessment tools for ranking pregnant minority women into multi-nutrient exposure groups

• Published in: Public health nutrition Vol. 14; no. 3; pp. 379 - 387
• Main Authors: Abu-Saad, Kathleen, Shai, Iris, Vardi, Hillel, Belmaker, Ilana, Fraser, Drora
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.03.2011
• Subjects: Adult; Arabs; Bedouins; Cross-Sectional Studies; Diet; Diet Records; Diet Surveys; Docosahexaenoic Acids - administration & dosage; Eicosapentaenoic Acid - administration & dosage; Energy Intake; Feeding Behavior; Female; Folic Acid - administration & dosage; Food; Food groups; HOT TOPIC – Assessment and methodology; Humans; Israel; Low income groups; Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Minority & ethnic groups; Minority Groups; Nutrients; Nutrition Assessment; Nutrition research; Nutritional status; Pilot Projects; Pregnancy; Prenatal care; Questionnaires; Recipes; Regression Analysis; Socioeconomic Factors; Surveys and Questionnaires; Womens health; Young Adult; United States > US; Israel; Pregnancy; Ethnic minorities; Targeted FFQ; Discriminating foods
• ISSN: 1368-9800; 1475-2727; 1475-2727
• DOI: 10.1017/S1368980010001497

To develop a targeted FFQ (TFFQ) and evaluate its effectiveness for ranking minority women by their intake of multiple nutrients important to a healthy pregnancy. In Stage 1, food groups derived from 24 h recall dietary data were entered into a stepwise multiple regression model to identify 'discriminating' foods for the TFFQ; in Stage 2, the TFFQ and a 24 h recall were administered to pregnant women. The TFFQ data were used to create a Habitual Multi-Nutrient Intake Scale (H-MNIS) for ranking the women. The effectiveness of the ranking was tested against women's reported nutrient intakes on the 24 h recall. Southern Israel. In Stage 1, 519 Bedouin Arab adults; in Stage 2, 404 pregnant Bedouin women. Of the ninety-three food groups included in the regression analysis, twenty-eight explained >80 % of the between-person variability in the intake of the target nutrients. Whole-wheat bread was a main discriminator for protein, Fe, Zn, Ca and folate. Fish, poultry and canned tuna explained ≥88 % of the between-person variation in DHA and EPA intakes. The mean daily intakes of pregnant Bedouin women from the 24 h recall data differed significantly across H-MNIS quartiles (P < 0·01) for all but three target nutrients (folate, EPA, DHA); and the P for trend was significant (P < 0·02) for all but EPA. The TFFQ and H-MNIS represent rapid assessment tools for studying maternal nutrition on a multi-nutrient basis, and effectively ranked pregnant Bedouin women into exposure groups by their intake of the target nutrients.