Compare and contrast food frequency questionnaires with brief dietary assessments

Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) are questionnaires that include a checklist of foods and beverages consumed over a previous period of time, such as the past 30 days or past year. FFQs can be administered using paper forms or completed online. FFQs reflect usual intake and are not as precise as diet diaries or 24-hour recalls for measuring specific intake at the individual level, and FFQs are limited in the precision of specific nutrients consumed. The food items included on an FFQ can be tailored to be culturally appropriate. The Southwest FFQ is an example of an FFQ tailored to foods typically consumed in the American Southwest. Completing FFQs requires adequate literacy and cognitive skills. Data from FFQs are useful to describe the average intake of a group, and they can be used to rank individuals within a group.
In comparison, a brief dietary assessment (BDA) is similar to an FFQ except that it is modified to focus on a smaller set of specific foods or beverages, typically with a focus on the intake of one or a few select nutrients. BDAs include a limited number of items (e.g., 15-30 ) that are chosen from those foods that are high in the micronutrient or macronutrient of interest. For example, a 20-item BDA has been designed to measure the usual dietary intake of foods containing soy among postmenopausal women.

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