(P26-012-23) Dietary Intake of Hong Kong Low-income Families Living in Sub-Divided Flat Units: a Cross-sectional Survey and Validation Study

Objectives: Whether individuals with lower socioeconomic status may have suboptimal dietary quality due to food insecurity needs to be verified, while they had a greater difficulty in completing conventional dietary assessment tools. In the present study, we examined the diet intake of individuals from low-income families by food insecurity status, and examined the relative validity of a short culturally-specific food frequency questionnaire (FFQ).

Methods: Amongst 103 individuals participating in a dietary intervention programme, their dietary data was collected by FFQ and 3-day dietary records. Validity was assessed by correlation analysis, cross-tabulation, one-sample t-test and linear regression. We also calculated the prevalence of nutrient intake not fulfilling the requirements of Chinese Dietary Reference Intakes.

Results: Most participants had excessive intake in sodium and energy from total fat, while having deficient intake in total energy, total dietary fiber, water, vitamin C, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, and potassium, but their dietary intake did not differ significantly by food insecurity status measured by the Household Food Security Survey Module. Water and total energy intake had significant correlation (0.77 for crude water intake and 0.87 for crude total energy intake) between values reported by FFQ and dietary records, with good agreement (both over 50% of observations falling into same quartile) and insignificant differences between assessment methods.

Conclusions: Most participants had excessive intake in sodium and energy from total fat, while having deficient intake in total energy, total dietary fiber, water, vitamin C, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, and potassium, but their dietary intake did not differ significantly by food insecurity status measured by the Household Food Security Survey Module. Water and total energy intake had significant correlation (0.77 for crude water intake and 0.87 for crude total energy intake) between values reported by FFQ and dietary records, with good agreement (both over 50% of observations falling into same quartile) and insignificant differences between assessment methods.

Funding Sources: Projects of RISA and Start-up Fund for RAPs under the Strategic Hiring Scheme