Development and Validation of a Salt Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ-Na) and a Discretionary Salt Questionnaire (DSQ) for the Evaluation of Salt Intake among French-Canadian Population

• Main Authors: Maria Cecilia Gallani, Alexandra Proulx-Belhumeur, Natalie Almeras, Jean-Pierre Després, Michel Doré, Jean-François Giguère
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-12-01
• Series: Nutrients
• Subjects: Food-Frequency Questionnaire; discretionary salt; salt intake; measurement; reliability; validity
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/1/105

We assessed the reliability and validity of a Salty Food Frequency Questionnaire for Sodium (FFQ-Na) and a Discretionary Salt Questionnaire (DSQ) developed for the French-Canadian population. The reliability was evaluated according to temporal stability over a 7–15 day interval (<i>n</i> = 36). Validity was evaluated by testing the tools against a 24-h urine sodium excretion (24 h Uri-Na) and a 3-day food record, and this at individual and group levels (<i>n</i> = 164). The intra-class coefficients (ICC) values for the test-retest of the DSQ, the FFQ-Na and the two questionnaires combined were 0.73, 0.97 and 0.98 respectively. Correlations of the FFQ-Na with the 24 h Uri-Na and the 3-day food record were 0.3 (<i>p</i> < 0.001) and 0.35 (<i>p</i> < 0.001) respectively. The DSQ showed no significant correlation with the reference measures. The correlation between the two methods combined were 0.29 (<i>p</i> < 0.001) with the 24 h Uri-Na and 0.31 (<i>p</i> < 0.001) with the 3-day food record. The results of Bland–Altman indicated that for the combined questionnaires, there was a bias of measurement (underestimation of intake), but it was constant for every level of intake according to the reference measures. Finally, the cross-classification indicated an acceptable proportion of agreement, but a rate between 20% and 30% of classification in the opposite quartile. In conclusion, the developed tools are reliable and showed some facets of validity.