Validation of Adolescent Diet Recalled by Adults

Background: Few studies have examined the validity of adolescent diet as recalled by adults many years later.

Methods: In this investigation, we examined the validity of a 124-item food frequency questionnaire (HS-FFQ) completed by 80 young adults in the United States about their diet during high school. We compared the HS-FFQ with 3 24-hour recalls and 2 food-frequency questionnaires (YAQ) collected 10 years earlier in 1993, when the participants were in high school. We calculated Pearson correlation coefficients for 20 to 25 nutrients and corrected these correlations for within-person variation.

Results: The average corrected correlation for energy-adjusted nutrient intakes calculated from the HS-FFQ and the 24-hour recalls was 0.45 (range = 0.16-0.68). The mean corrected correlation between the HS-FFQ and YAQs was 0.58 (range = 0.40-0.88).

Conclusion: Taken together with the results of our earlier work, this analysis suggests that the HS-FFQ can reasonably capture adolescent diet recalled by young adults.