Abdulwali,

I answered this earlier. For ages 12-18 the best is a screener for fat and fruits and vegetables, however, you can also use BLOCK questionnaires for adolescents. All questionnaires can be interpreted and translated into any language. I am not sure if the cultural foods are included. The best way to test this is to validate the questionnaires using a series of 24-hour recalls for children of Arab culture against the BLOCK FFQ. All of these questionnaires have manuals that explain how to administer, score, and interpret the results.

Dear Abdulwali Mareh 

simply use the beck physical activity questionnaire and a 24- recall questionnaire.

hoping to be effective to you. let me know if more help needed.

Take a look at the NCCOR Measures Registry for further ideas - https://tools.nccor.org/measures

We did a study several years ago with our grade 5 students (11 yrs old) and used the Youth/Adolescent food frequency questionnaire developed through the Channing Laboratory at Harvard Public Health. They also had a physical activity  frequency questionnaire that we used. The nutrition survey gave us a lot of valuable information bu the physical activity survey did not.

Regarding physical activity, I would recomend YAP questionnaire http://www.youthactivitystudy.com/dissemination.html

Please avoid Questionnaires (e.g., FFQs) and other forms of memory-based methods. My work demonstrated these methods to be pseudo-scientific (i.e., non-falsifiable) and produce physiologically implausible (i.e., meaningless) data with no relation to actual dietary intake. Please see:

Archer E, Marlow ML, Lavie CJ. Controversy and Debate: Memory based Methods Paper 1: The Fatal Flaws of Food Frequency Questionnaires and other Memory-Based Dietary Assessment Methods. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 2018.

Archer E, Marlow ML, Lavie CJ. Controversy and Debate: Memory-Based Dietary Assessment Methods Paper #3. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 2018.

Archer E, Pavela G, Lavie CJ. The Inadmissibility of What We Eat in America and NHANES Dietary Data in Nutrition and Obesity Research and the Scientific Formulation of National Dietary Guidelines. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2015;90(7):911-926.

Best of luck,

Ed

The issue is age. Children may need parents to answer for them; whereas adolescents are capable of answering for themselves. Physical activity questions on FFQ are usually not of value. There are validated PA questionnaires for children and adolescents. Before a questionnaire is used for a particular population, it should be validated for that group (ethnicity, age...etc.). An interview with a Registered Dietitian for 24 hour recalls against a food frequency questionnaire is a way to eliminate memory issues. Use of food models, plates, cups, glasses...etc. by a trained dietitian in an interview format can reduce memory errors.

Please see my work (listed below). The data derived from dietary interviews (e.g., 24-hour dietary recalls) are physiologically implausible and therefore meaningless. These data should not be used in scientific research.

Archer E et al. Validity of U.S. Nutritional Surveillance: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey caloric energy intake data, 1971-2010. PLoS One. 2013;8(10):e76632.

For PA, use objective measures such as accelerometers.

My research demonstrated that dietary and PA questionnaires lack any semblance of validity due to intentional and non-intentional distorting factors (e.g., confabulation, lying, forgetting, false memories, social desirability, and mis-estimation).

As listed in my previous answer, please see:

Archer E, Marlow ML, Lavie CJ. Controversy and Debate: Memory based Methods Paper 1: The Fatal Flaws of Food Frequency Questionnaires and other Memory-Based Dietary Assessment Methods. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 2018.

Archer E, Marlow ML, Lavie CJ. Controversy and Debate: Memory-Based Dietary Assessment Methods Paper #3. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 2018.

Archer E, Pavela G, Lavie CJ. The Inadmissibility of What We Eat in America and NHANES Dietary Data in Nutrition and Obesity Research and the Scientific Formulation of National Dietary Guidelines. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2015;90(7):911-926.

Checkout the NCCOR Measures Registry and User Guides - www.nccor.org