Dietary assessment methods for micronutrient intake in infants, children and adolescents: a systematic review

• Published in: British journal of nutrition Vol. 102; no. S1; pp. S87 - S117
• Main Authors: Ortiz-Andrellucchi, Adriana, Henríquez-Sánchez, Patricia, Sánchez-Villegas, Almudena, Peña-Quintana, Luis, Mendez, Michelle, Serra-Majem, Lluís
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.12.2009
• Subjects: Adolescent; adolescent nutrition; Adolescents; Biomarkers - blood; Child; Child development; child nutrition; Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Children; Children & youth; Cognition & reasoning; Correlation coefficient; data analysis; data collection; Diet; Diet Records; Diet Surveys; Dietary assessment methods; dietary minerals; Dietary Supplements; Epidemiologic Methods; Europe; food frequency questionnaires; food records; Humans; Infant; infant nutrition; Infants; literature reviews; long term intake; meta-analysis; Micronutrients; Micronutrients - administration & dosage; Micronutrients - blood; nutrient intake; Nutrition Assessment; Nutrition research; Nutritional Sciences - standards; Physical growth; preschool children; reference standards; Reproducibility of Results; school children; short term intake; Surveys and Questionnaires; Systematic review; Validation; validity; Vitamins; Europe; Validation; Micronutrients; Dietary assessment methods; Systematic review; Infants; Children; Adolescents
• ISSN: 0007-1145; 1475-2662
• DOI: 10.1017/S0007114509993163

A systematic literature search identified studies validating the methodology used for measuring the usual dietary intake in infants, children and adolescents. The quality of each validation study selected was assessed using a European micronutrient Recommendations Aligned-developed scoring system. The validation studies were categorised according to whether the study used a reference method that reflected short-term intake ( < 7 d), long-term intake ( ≥ 7 d) or used biomarkers. A correlation coefficient for each nutrient was calculated from the mean of the correlation coefficients from each study weighted by the quality of the study. Thirty-two articles were included in the present review: validation studies from infants (1–23 months); child preschool (2–5 years); children (6–12 years); adolescents (13–18 years). Validation of FFQ studies in infants and preschool children using a reference method that reflected short-term intake showed good correlations for niacin, thiamin, vitamins B6, D, C, E, riboflavin, Ca, K, Mg, Fe and Zn (with correlations ranging from 0·55 for vitamin E to 0·69 for niacin).Regarding the reference method reflecting short-term intake in children and adolescents, good correlations were seen only for vitamin C (r 0·61) and Ca (r 0·51). Using serum levels of micronutrient demonstrated that the 3 d weighed dietary records was superior to the FFQ as a tool to validate micronutrient intakes. Including supplement users generally improved the correlations between micronutrient intakes estimated by any of the dietary intake methods and respective biochemical indices.