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Nutritools.org an innovative website including a Food Questionnaire Creator for dietary assessment in health research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2018

M. Warthon-Medina ,
J. Hooson ,
N. Hancock ,
J. Hutchinson ,
E. Vargas-Garcia ,
L.E. Gibson ,
L.A. Bush ,
K. Greathead ,
B. Knowles  and
B. Margetts
...Show all authors
M. Warthon-Medina
Affiliation:
Nutritional Epidemiology Group, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
J. Hooson
Affiliation:
Nutritional Epidemiology Group, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
N. Hancock
Affiliation:
Nutritional Epidemiology Group, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
J. Hutchinson
Affiliation:
Nutritional Epidemiology Group, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
E. Vargas-Garcia
Affiliation:
Nutritional Epidemiology Group, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
L.E. Gibson
Affiliation:
Nutritional Epidemiology Group, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
L.A. Bush
Affiliation:
Nutritional Epidemiology Group, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
K. Greathead
Affiliation:
Nutritional Epidemiology Group, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
B. Knowles
Affiliation:
Nutritional Epidemiology Group, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
B. Margetts
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
S. Robinson
Affiliation:
MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, University of Southampton SO16 6YD, UK
A. Ness
Affiliation:
NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Nutrition, Diet and Lifestyle, University of Bristol, BS8 1TH, UK
N.A. Alwan
Affiliation:
Academic Unit of Primary Care and Population Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, SO16 6YD, UK
P.A. Wark
Affiliation:
Centre for Innovative Research Across the Life Course (CIRAL), Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK
M. Roe
Affiliation:
Quadram Institute Bioscience, Norwich, NR4 7UA, UK
P. Finglas
Affiliation:
Quadram Institute Bioscience, Norwich, NR4 7UA, UK
T. Steer
Affiliation:
MRC Elsie Widdowson Laboratory, Cambridge, CB1 9NL, UK
P. Page
Affiliation:
MRC Elsie Widdowson Laboratory, Cambridge, CB1 9NL, UK
T. Key
Affiliation:
Nuffield Department of Population Health Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PA
L. Johnson
Affiliation:
Centre for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TH, UK
K. Roberts
Affiliation:
Public Health Section, School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
B. Amoutzopoulos
Affiliation:
MRC Elsie Widdowson Laboratory, Cambridge, CB1 9NL, UK
V.J. Burley
Affiliation:
Nutritional Epidemiology Group, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
D.C. Greenwood
Affiliation:
Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
J.E. Cade
Affiliation:
Nutritional Epidemiology Group, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
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Abstract

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Accurate diet measurement is challenging and strategies to support researchers in selecting the most appropriate dietary assessment tools (DATs) are required. (DIETary Assessment tools NETwork) partnership aimed to create an online resource that provides guidelines for selecting tools with access to validated DATs.

The Nutritools website(Reference Warthon-Medina, Hooson and Hancock1), www.nutritools.org, was developed using 3 approaches. 1) Creation of Best Practice Guidelines(Reference Cade, Warthon-Medina and Albar2), enabling researchers to choose the most appropriate DAT for their work. These were generated using the Delphi method which enabled integration of expert views. 2) Creating an interactive DAT e-library, with the DATs being identified through a systematic review of systematic reviews(Reference Hooson, Hancock and Greenwood3). Bubble charts and summary plots are used to compare DATs. 3) Development of a Food Questionnaire Creator (FQC), an online interface between food tables and the DATs which allows users to create their own food questionnaires. This work was overseen by the partnership. Other useful information includes links to food composition databases and a detailed glossary of terms.

Results from the systematic review of reviews generated information for Nutritools. The website includes 127 international validated tools, of which 63 tools were validated in the UK (with 45 validated from year 2000 onwards). The majority (n = 34) of the validated tools were food frequency questionnaires, developed from 1981 to 2016. Numbers of foods included ranged from 8–692 items. Five of the 12 dietary recalls included were web-based. Tools were usually validated against another self-reported dietary assessment method, mainly weighed food diaries. More than 1500 papers with non-UK tools were identified, of these, data on 64 international tools and their validation studies were added to Nutritools.

The FQC allows for food questionnaires to be created using data from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) Year 6 and the Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset. Results from the NDNS can be used to formulate food questions that capture a large proportion of the nutrients of interest and to inform portion sizes.

In conclusion, Nutritools, www.nutritools.org, is an online platform that hosts international validated and interactive DATs. Researchers can use the interactive Best Practice Guidelines and features in the selection of the most appropriate DAT for their study, and the Food Questionnaire Creator to develop their own online food questionnaires.

This project was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) (ref: MR/L02019X/1).

References

1.Warthon-Medina, M, Hooson, J, Hancock, N, et al. (2017) The Lancet 390, pS94.Google Scholar
2.Cade, JE, Warthon-Medina, M, Albar, S, et al. (2017) BMC Medicine 15(1), p202.Google Scholar
3.Hooson, J, Hancock, N, Greenwood, DC, et al. (2016) Proc Nutr Soc 75(OCE3).Google Scholar