Dietary Assessment in Rwanda - Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ Rwanda)

University Ghent

Status: Completed

Conditions: Dietary Assessment

Treatments: Other: 24 Hour food recall; Other: Food Frequency Questionnaire

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04202107

EC/2019/1578

Details and patient eligibility

About

The burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Rwanda is adding to the health burden in the country which is facing the nutritional transition and the double burden of malnutrition. Diet is an established risk factor in NCDs, hence the importance to assess accurately the changes in dietary habits occurring in the population. The objective is to develop and validate a food frequency questionnaire in Rwanda.

Full description

In many developing countries, including Rwanda, the lack of developed and validated questionnaires is among major challenges for dietary assessment in nutritional surveys. Questionnaires are mostly borrowed from other communities. This can increase the error range due to low adaptation to local context, especially when they are not validated and may not have similar objectives. One Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) does not capture dietary history in two different countries or regions, unless their diets are similar. Besides, the diet changes with time, where new foods are introduced in diet and others may disappear. In Rwanda, one FFQ has been developed to cover only the eastern part of the country, but none for the entire country (Cade et al., 2001; FAO, 2018). It is then very important to develop and validate an update and general FFQ that can be used across the country to measure the dietary intake to have a better interpretation of the study findings from the Rwandan context.

The overall objective is to develop and validate a semi-quantitative FFQ that can be used to assess the food and nutrient intake in urban and rural communities of Rwanda.

Specific objectives include:

1. To collect data on diet intake of selected participants by using a 24-H recall questionnaire that includes pictures on the approximate quantities consumed in each occasion.
2. To develop a list of food items from commonly consumed food by study participants using the compiled 24-h recall questionnaire to use for an FFQ development. Additionally, an open question format to collect information on foods consumed during social gathering and festivals will be used to include unreported foods. FFQ shall include additionally the food portion size, and the frequency of intake over a reference period of one year.
3. To assess the accuracy of the developed FFQ in estimating energy and nutrient intake using the 24-H dietary recall as a benchmark of accuracy.

Enrollment: 200 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 49 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Permanent residence of the selected urban or rural villages
• Holding a valid health insurance card
• Aged between 18 and 49 years
• Signing informed consent form
• Familiar with the diet and cooking practices
• Registration in city demographic system, since study participants will be selected from population registration cards at village level,
• Accept enumerators for home visit and data collection for one year

Exclusion criteria

• Mental disorders such as clinically diagnosed depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and addictive behaviors

Trial design

200 participants in 2 patient groups

Urban

Description:

Men and women between 18 and 49 years of age living in the selected urban communities in Rwanda and who are familiar with the diet. Participants in this study should be acquainted with cooking practices to be able to cite all the ingredients that are used in the preparation of the dishes/ meals

Treatment:

Other: 24 Hour food recall

Other: Food Frequency Questionnaire

Rural

Description:

Men and women between 18 and 49 years of age living in the selected urban communities in Rwanda and who are familiar with the diet. Participants in this study should be acquainted with cooking practices to be able to cite all the ingredients that are used in the preparation of the dishes/ meals

Treatment:

Other: 24 Hour food recall

Other: Food Frequency Questionnaire