Reliability of the Block Kid's Food Frequency Questionnaire translated to Arabic and adapted for Kuwaiti children

Abdulaziz Kh Al-Farhan; Tyler Brian Becker; Erich Petushek; Lorraine Weatherspoon; Joseph J Carlson

doi:10.1016/j.nut.2021.111289

Reliability of the Block Kid's Food Frequency Questionnaire translated to Arabic and adapted for Kuwaiti children

Nutrition. 2021 Oct:90:111289. doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2021.111289. Epub 2021 Apr 23.

Authors

Abdulaziz Kh Al-Farhan¹, Tyler Brian Becker², Erich Petushek³, Lorraine Weatherspoon⁴, Joseph J Carlson⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Department of Radiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA; The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET), College of Nursing Kuwait. Electronic address: ak.alfarhan@paaet.edu.kw.
² Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan, USA.
³ Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan, USA.
⁴ Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
⁵ Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Department of Radiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.

PMID: 34198008
DOI: 10.1016/j.nut.2021.111289

Abstract

Objectives: Little is known about the nutrient intakes of Kuwaiti children; this is partly due to a lack of culture-specific dietary assessment instruments to estimate the usual food and nutrient intake of Arab children. The aim of this study was to describe the methodology used in translating the 2004 Block Kid's Food Frequency Questionnaire (Block FFQ) to Arabic using adapted food choices commonly consumed by Kuwaiti children, and to evaluate the reliability of the FFQ in a population of fifth-grade Kuwaiti children.

Methods: The 2004 Block FFQ was translated from English to Arabic, and food options were replaced with culturally appropriate foods. The modified FFQ was administered to 367 male and female Kuwaiti fifth graders (10.4 ± 0.4 y of age; 53% girls). The FFQ was retested 1 wk later in 26 male students, and 4 wk later in 32 female students. Intraclass correlations (ICC) assessed the reliability between the participants' first and second FFQs for food groups, macronutrients, and five key micronutrients.

Results: The combined analysis of boys and girls indicated a moderate reliability for food groups (ICC, 0.68; 95% confidence interval [CI]; 0.52-0.80) and micronutrients (ICC, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.29-0.72), but was poor for macronutrients (ICC, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.21-0.62).

Conclusions: The modified FFQ is a modestly reliable instrument for measuring usual dietary intake in Kuwaiti children. The ICC was higher in boys than in girls, probably due to the disparity in the FFQ retest time.

Keywords: Food frequency questionnaire; Kuwait; Nutrition; Pediatric; Reliability.

MeSH terms

Child
Diet Surveys
Diet*
Energy Intake*
Female
Humans
Male
Micronutrients
Reproducibility of Results
Surveys and Questionnaires

Substances

Micronutrients