The Canadian Food Intake Screener for assessing alignment of adults' dietary intake with the 2019 Canada's Food Guide healthy food choices recommendations: scoring system and construct validity

Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2023 Aug 1;48(8):620-633. doi: 10.1139/apnm-2023-0018. Epub 2023 May 10.

Abstract

The Canadian Food Intake Screener was developed to rapidly assess alignment of dietary intake with the Canada's Food Guide-2019 healthy food choices recommendations. Scoring is aligned with the Healthy Eating Food Index-2019 to the extent possible. Among a sample of adults, reasonable variation in screener scores was noted, mean screener scores differed between some subgroups with known differences in diet quality, and a moderate correlation between screener scores and total Healthy Eating Food Index-2019 scores based on repeat 24 h dietary recalls was observed. The Canadian Food Intake Screener has moderate construct validity for rapid assessment of overall alignment of adults' dietary intake with the Canada's Food Guide-2019 healthy food choices recommendations.

Keywords: Canada’s food guide; Healthy Eating Food Index-2019; construct validity; diet quality; dietary assessment; dietary guidance; food choices; questionnaire; screener; usual intake.