Background and Aims: Brief dietary questionnaires are needed to guide patient education and outcome evaluation in Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR); there is a lack of validated questionnaires appropriate for CR settings. A new 50-item brief Block Fat/Sugar/Fruit/Vegetable Screener (Screener) that generates estimates for saturated fat (SF), Trans fat (TF), total sugar (TS), fruits and vegetables (FV), has been developed but not yet validated. A small pilot study (N = 25) was conducted to assess the validity and reliability of the Screener as compared to a modified version of the Block 2005 Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). The purpose of the present study was to use a larger sample to assess the reliability and validity of the Screener when compared to the modified FFQ and to 24-hour dietary recalls.
Methods and Materials: Participants (N = 107, 72% male, mean age = 62) recruited from a regional cardiac rehabilitation centre between November 2006 and October 2007 were asked to complete the Screener and a modified version of the FFQ at baseline and 2 weeks later. A total of 53 participants (50%) were also randomly selected to complete two 24-hour dietary recalls within the 2-week study period. Results were analyzed using SPSS and Pearson correlations.
Results: Ninety eight participants (92%) completed both sets of questionnaires. Results from this larger sample are pending. Preliminary results from the pilot study demonstrated that the content of the Screener was representative of the FFQ. Correlations to the 24-hour recalls were not in the scope of the pilot study, but will be included in the results from the larger sample. Test-retest correlations for the four Screener categories were good, ranging from .59 for SF to .79 for TS. Predictive validities of the categories were acceptable, ranging from .43 for TF to .68 for FV.
Conclusions: Preliminary results suggest that the Screener provides reliable and valid estimates of SF, TF, TS and FV. If the final results of the present validation study further support the validity and reliability of the Screener, it could prove to be a very useful nutritional tool for the CR setting