Development of Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) for the assessment of dietary intake among overweight and obese Saudi young children

Background: Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) is an effective tool for nutritional status assessment. This study had two objectives: (1) to develop a FFQ for habitual dietary intake assessment of children and adolescents with overweight or obesity and (2) to evaluate the reproducibility of this FFQ. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Obesity Clinics at King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A final sample of 236 children and adolescents (115/121: M/F; age 6–17 years) was used after they provided a written consent. Their anthropometrics were measured and they completed a a 3-day food record (3DFR) questionnaire. We constructed a comprehensive food list based on the most commonly reported food items and portion size reported in 3DFR. This food list was converted to FFQ format using the typically reported portions. FFQ was reduced and developed into final form. The newly developed 74-item FFQ was administered twice over a 4-week period. Reproducibility was explored by comparing the nutrients and food intakes of FFQ1 and FFQ2. All statistical analyses were done on SPSS (version 18.0 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results: The newly developed FFQ had 74 food items distributed in 7 food groups. A satisfactory reproducibility of FFQ was achieved. The average correlation coefficients of nutrients and food groups were 0.46 and 0.49, respectively. The average % agreement of nutrients and food groups were 70.1 and 70.9%, respectively. Conclusion: The newly developed FFQ had 74 food items broadly categorized in 7 food groups and yielded satisfactory reproducibility. We conclude the newly developed FFQ may be a useful tool for further research for dietary assessment of children and adolescents with overweight and obesity in Saudi Arabia. © 2018, The Author(s).