Affret et al. BMC Nephrology (2017) 18:297 DOI 10.1186/s12882-017-0695-2 RESEARCHARTICLE Open Access Validity and reproducibility of a short food frequency questionnaire among patients with chronic kidney disease Aurélie Affret1,2,3, Sandra Wagner1,2,3,4, Douae El Fatouhi1,2,3, Courtney Dow1,2,3, Emmanuelle Correia1,2,3, Maryvonne Niravong1,2,3, Françoise Clavel-Chapelon1,2,3, Julie De Chefdebien1,2,3, Denis Fouque4,5,6, Bénédicte Stengel1,2,3, on behalf of CKD-REIN study investigators, Marie-Christine Boutron-Ruault1,2,3,7* and Guy Fagherazzi1,2,3 Abstract Background: A balanced diet is essential to slowing the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and managing the symptoms. Currently, no tool is available to easily and quickly assess energy and macronutrient intake in patients with non end-stage CKD. We aimed to develop and evaluate the validity and reproducibility of a new short 49-item food frequency questionnaire (SFFQ) adapted to patients with CKD. Methods: The CKD-REIN study is a prospective cohort that enrolled 3033 patients with moderate or advanced CKD from a national sample of nephrology clinics. A sub-sample of 201 patients completed the SFFQ twice, at a one-year interval and were included in the reproducibility study. During this interval, 127 patients also completed six 24-h recalls and were included in the validity study. Main nutrient and dietary intakes were computed. Validity was evaluated by calculating crude, energy-adjusted and de-attenuated correlation coefficients (CC) between FFQ and the mean of the 24-h recall results. Bland-Altman plots were performed and cross-classification into quintiles of consumption of each nutrient and food group was computed. Reproducibility between the two SFFQs was evaluated by intraclass CC (ICC). Results: Regarding validity, CC ranged from 0.05 to 0.79 (unadjusted CC, median: 0.40) and 0.10 to 0.59 (de-attenuated CC, median: 0.35) for food group and nutrient intakes, respectively. Five of the most important nutrients of interest in CKD, i.e. protein, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and sodium had de-attenuated CC of 0.46, 0.43, 0.39, 0.32, and 0.12, respectively. The median of classification into the same or adjacent quintiles was 68% and 65% for food and nutrient intakes, respectively, and ranged from 63% to 69% for the five nutrients mentioned before. Bland-Altman plots showed good agreement across the range of intakes. ICC ranged from 0.18 to 0.66 (median: 0.46). Conclusions: The CKD-REIN SFFQ showed acceptable validity and reproducibility in a sample of patients with CKD, notably for CKD nutrients of importance. It can now be used in large-scale epidemiological studies to easily assess the relations between diet and CKD outcomes as well as in clinical routine. It may also serve as a basis for the development of FFQs in international CKD cohort networks. Keywords: Chronic kidney disease, Short food frequency questionnaire, Validity, Reproducibility, Diet, Dietary assessment * Correspondence: [email protected] 1Inserm U1018, Center for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health (CESP), Villejuif, France 2Univ Paris-Sud, Villejuif, France Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Affret et al. BMC Nephrology (2017) 18:297 Page 2 of 15 Background is available to study nutritional intakes, iii) the SFFQ Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), defined by the pres- developed by Barrat et al. [23] refers to past week in- ence of abnormalities in kidney structure or function takes, does not take seasonal variability into account for a period greater than 3 months, is common [1]. It and does not focus on nutrients of interest in a CKD is associated with high risks of mortality and progres- context. Therefore, the consortium decided to develop sion to end-stage renal disease (ESRD), for which kid- a new and unique SFFQ (40 items) adapted to several ney replacement therapy (dialysis) or transplantation population subgroups of interest. They also agreed is required. To avoid progression to ESRD, prevention that few additional specific questions (10 items max., of CKD progression and management of the symp- 9 in the present study) could be added to the ques- toms through nutrition are essential [2]. Indeed, epi- tionnaire to aid in the estimation of some nutrients demiological and clinical evidence have shown links of interest, in the context of specific populations such between several micronutrients and CKD [3]. In this as CKD patients. context, it is currently recommended (but rarely The CKD-REIN (CKD-Renal Epidemiology and Infor- achieved) to reduce dietary protein intake (DPI) to mation Network) cohort was chosen to be the first pilot 0.8 g/kg/day from CKD stage 3 [1, 4], even if the DPI study for evaluating the SFFQ feasibility and validity. Be- effect on the progression of CKD is still debated [5–7]. fore using a newly developed or modified FFQ, it must Calcium, phosphorus, potassium and sodium chloride first be validated to be considered as an acceptable intakes also need to be monitored, from CKD stage 3, method of dietary assessment [24]. The aim of the due to their relation with mineral, bone and cardio- present study was to study the reproducibility of the vascular CKD complications [1, 4]. Finally, because newly developed SFFQ, and evaluate its validity against more than 40% of CKD patients have diabetes, they six 24-h recalls, in a sample of patients with moderate are encouraged to limit the specific nutrients diabetic or advanced CKD. patients are advised to limit (i.e. simple sugars and saturated fats) [8]. In terms of dietary patterns, the Methods Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Study population and design diet and the Mediterranean diet, both low in dietary The CKD-REIN study is a clinical-based prospective acid load, have been associated with favorable CKD cohort that included 3033 adult patients with moder- outcomes [3]. ate or advanced CKD from a nationally representative Despite these numerous and complex dietary recom- sample of nephrology facilities between July 2013 and mendations and findings, very few CKD patients with March 2016. The design and methods for this cohort non-ESRD have a dietetic follow-up, and little is known have been described in detail elsewhere [25]. Between about their food consumption. April and June 2014, participants who were included It is therefore essential to examine the relationship be- in the CKD-REIN study were informed about the tween dietary factors and outcomes in patients with design of the present reproducibility and validity CKD [9]. Food Frequency Questionnaires (FFQs) have study and were invited to participate. In total, 301 been previously developed in the CKD context but most participants were volunteers, gave informed consent of them are long questionnaires (around 150 items) [1, and were mailed the newly developed SFFQ. They 10–13] or focus on the estimation of specific nutrient/ were asked to complete the SFFQ twice, at a 1 year food intakes [14, 15]. One SFFQ of 76 food items was interval, in June 2014 and 2015. 244 participants developed in the Brazilian context [16]. completed the SFFQ once and 208 participants A consortium of 6 cohorts (E3N [17], E4N [18], CKD- completed it twice. Participants who under- or over- REIN [13], i-Share [19], Elfe [20] and Psy-COH) was cre- reported energy intake in one of the SFFQs were ated to obtain a unique Short Food Frequency Question- excluded as previously described [26]: they were in naire (SFFQ), useful to quickly assess the diet in several the top and bottom 1% of the energy intake to energy population subgroups: patients with CKD (CKD-REIN requirement ratio distribution. Energy requirement cohort), adolescents, students, adults, the elderly and pa- was calculated as follows: Basal Metabolic Rate tients with mental disorders. (BMR)* Physical Activity Level (the cutoff value of Existing SFFQs have not been suitable to quickly 1.55 for a minimal activity level was chosen [27]). assess the diet in several French population sub- BMR was computed on the basis of sex, age, height groups: i) the SFFQ developed by Vercambre et al. and weight, using the Schofield formula [28]. A total [21] was developed for senior women and focuses on of 201 participants were included in the reproducibil- nutrients of interest for this population, ii) one third ity study. Among them, 127 patients agreed to answer six of the items of the SFFQ developed by Giovannelli et 24-h recalls and were therefore included in the validity al. [22] are not valid and no food composition table study (a flow diagram is presented in Additional file 1). Affret et al. BMC Nephrology (2017) 18:297 Page 3 of 15 Short food frequency questionnaire 24-h recalls The food list of the SFFQ was defined on the basis of The reference method used to compare results from the existing national food questionnaires [21–23, 29–32] SFFQ consisted of six 24-h recalls carried out each and data from the second national study of individual 2 months, during the year between the first and the sec- food intakes of French adults (INCA 2) [33].