Designing a Food Frequency Questionnaire for a Vegetarian Population in Germany by Means of Mixed-Integer Linear Programming.
Background: Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) are important tools for dietary assessment in large epidemiological studies, playing a crucial role in evaluating the relationship between diet and health. However, adapting the food lists in FFQs to align with specific study objectives or target popu...
| Publicado en: | Nutrients Vol. 18; no. 10; pp. 1587 - 1603 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | equations & formulas research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
MDPI
May2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=194141305&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 194141305 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 20726643 B0TT jtl: Nutrients issn: 20726643 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: May2026 vid: 18 iid: 10 pid: 97109 pub: MDPI artinfo: ui: 194141305 194141305 194141305 10.3390/nu18101587 194141305 ppf: 1587 ppct: 16 formats: tig: atl: Designing a Food Frequency Questionnaire for a Vegetarian Population in Germany by Means of Mixed-Integer Linear Programming. aug: au: Blaurock, Julia Heuer, Thorsten Gedrich, Kurt affil: Research Group Public Health Nutrition, ZIEL—Institute for Food & Health, Technical University of Munich, Weihenstephaner Berg 1, 85354 Freising, Germany sug: subj: Vegetarianism Germany Nutritional Assessment Diet Questionnaires Conceptual Framework Program Development Portion Size Food Intake Human Secondary Analysis Germany Pilot Studies Nutrients Descriptive Statistics Linear Regression Confidence Intervals Data Analysis Software Male Female Adolescence Adult Middle Age Aged Aged, 80 and Over Funding Source Adolescent: 13-18 years Adult: 19-44 years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Aged: 65+ years Aged, 80 & over Male Female ab: Background: Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) are important tools for dietary assessment in large epidemiological studies, playing a crucial role in evaluating the relationship between diet and health. However, adapting the food lists in FFQs to align with specific study objectives or target populations presents a considerable challenge. Methods: The present study develops a framework using mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) to minimize the food list of an FFQ using a vegetarian population in Germany as a proof of concept. Constraints of the optimization ensured that the selected food items have a certain nutrient coverage and variance coverage, as well as an appropriate aggregation level. Nutrient intake for three scenarios for FFQs was compared with 24 h recalls (24HR) using R2, calculated through linear regression. The three scenarios were: 1. FFQ reflecting the effect of categorizing portion sizes, 2. FFQ reflecting the effect of selecting food items, 3. FFQ reflecting the effect of categorizing portion sizes and selecting food items. Results: Length of minimized FFQs increased with a higher proportion of nutrient coverage and variance coverage. Including aggregation of food items produced shorter FFQs than FFQs that only contain food items at a lower aggregation level. R2 values across the three scenarios showed that the FFQ captured most of the between-person variation in nutrient intake that was observed in the 24HR. Conclusions: MILP offers a reliable and data-driven framework for compiling optimized FFQs. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: equations & formulas research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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