Development of a quantitative food frequency questionnaire for assessing food, nutrient, and heterocyclic aromatic amines intake in Japanese Brazilians for a colorectal adenoma case–control study

Abstract

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To develop of a quantitative food frequency questionnaire (QFFQ) to assess intake of specific foods, nutrients and heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) in a case-control study of colorectal adenoma. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: A cross-sectional survey conducted in a hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A trained dietitian collected 24-h recalls from 60 Japanese Brazilian outpatients (29 men and 31 women; mean age 58 years and 57 years, respectively). MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Fruit, vegetable and legume intake was high, with mean daily servings consumed in men and women of 8.2 and 6.9, respectively. The QFFQ contains 161 food items presented in 15 food groupings, with particular emphasis paid to the HAA content of meat, fish and chicken items. CONCLUSIONS: We have developed a QFFQ appropriate for Japanese Brazilians that will allow us to estimate HAA intake and will be used to examine our hypotheses related to foods, nutrients and HAAs, and diet-gene interactions in colorectal neoplasia in this population.