(P29-023-23) Validation of App-Based Food Frequency Questionnaire (ADD-IT): Comparison With 24-Hour Diet Recalls Among Women in Two Rural Areas of Kenya

Objectives: The initiative aimed at improving nutrition intervention programs by providing food consumption data for better decision-making and promoting local foods has developed an app-based food assessment tool called ADD-IT. A new FFQ was developed based on our previous study, including 49 dishes and food items and asking for their frequency of consumption and portion size with photos. This study examined the validity of the FFQ.

Methods: We compared the estimated intake of energy, macro and micronutrients, and food groups collected with the app-based FFQ for a month with estimated intake by mean of nonconsecutive two-day 24-hour dietary recalls (24hDRs) of food consumption among women aged between 19 and 70 years (n=179) in two rural areas, Kitui and Vihiga, in Kenya. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients, cross-classification agreement and Bland-Altman plots were used to assess the validity of FFQ against 24hDRs. Food consumption patterns for different communities were characterized by FFQ and 24hDRs using Mann-Whitney’s U test, then ensured the consistency of results.

Results: Results showed that correlation coefficients ranged from low (-0.062) to moderate (0.479). On a median, about 71% of participants were correctly classified into the same or adjacent quartile, while 9% were misclassified by estimated nutrient intake from the FFQ. Bland-Altman plots ensured no significant systematic bias for energy and energy from macronutrients. The FFQ identified each community’s characteristically food consumption patterns as almost the same as 24hDRs.

Conclusions: The newly developed app-based and culture-sensitive FFQ can be used to rank or classify individuals within each population according to their dietary intake and to estimate the characteristics of their food intake patterns. However, selective reporting errors of specific foods existed, and several suggestions were discussed for reducing such errors and improving validations.

Funding Sources: This study was supported by the Japan Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. (Grant number: L21ROM109) “Stimulating use of local resources in Africa to improve nutrition and livelihoods: A new integrated food consumption assessment tool for better decision making in nutrition interventions”.