Reproducibility of 24-hour dietary recall for vitamin intakes by middle-aged Japanese men and women

Validation of the 24-hour perceived exertion recall survey (PERS) in women in rural Tigray, Ethiopia

Background

Physical activity affects nutritional status and health. Currently, there are few validated survey tools for estimating physical activity in rural areas of low-income countries, including Ethiopia, which limits the ability of researchers to assess how physical activity affects nutritional status.

Objectives

This study used accelerometry to validate 2 in-person questionnaires, the global physical activity questionnaire (GPAQ) and the 24-h perceived exertion recall survey (PERS).

Methods

This study recruited 180 women aged between 18 and 45 y living in rural Tigray, Ethiopia. Participants had previously participated in an impact evaluation of a public work safety net. They wore an accelerometer for 8 d and responded to perceived exertion questionnaires twice. Data were collected on 89 women during the short rainy period and 91 women during the main rainy season. A survey method was considered valid if the proportion of time spent in moderate or vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels had a Pearson's correlation coefficient of >0.40 to the proportion of time spent in MVPA recorded by accelerometry.

Results

The GPAQ had high reliability, but the overall validity was poorer than accelerometry. The proportion of time spent in MVPA according to the accelerometer was associated with discordance between GPAQ and accelerometry. MVPA levels, as measured by the 24-h PERS, had a fair agreement with accelerometry. The agreement increased to moderate/acceptable when adjusted for season and BMI.

Conclusions

The 24-h PERS is a valid tool for estimating the physical activity of women living in rural highland Ethiopia. It can be used in future research to understand the physical activity demands of living in rural highland Ethiopia, enabling more targeted programs to address undernutrition.

Dietary intake of tocopherols and risk of incident disabling dementia

Tocopherols, strong antioxidants, may be useful in preventing dementia, but the epidemiological evidence is insufficient. We performed a community-based follow-up study of Japanese, the Circulatory Risk in Community Study, involving 3739 people aged 40-64 years at baseline (1985-1999). Incident disabling dementia was followed up from 1999 through 2020. For subtype analysis, we classified disabling dementia into that with and that without a history of stroke. Dietary intake of tocopherols (total, α, β, γ, and δ) were estimated using 24-h recall surveys. During a median follow-up of 19.7 years, 670 cases of disabling dementia developed. Total tocopherol intake was inversely associated with risk of disabling dementia with multivariable hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) of 0.79 (0.63-1.00) for the highest versus lowest quartiles of total tocopherol intake (P for trend = 0.05). However, the association was strengthened when further adjusted for α-linolenic acid intake (Spearman correlation with total tocopherol intake = 0.93), with multivariable hazard ratios of 0.50 (0.34-0.74) (P for trend = 0.001) but was weakened and nonsignificant when further adjusted for linoleic acid intake (Spearman correlation with total tocopherol intake = 0.92), with multivariable hazard ratios of 0.69 (0.47-1.01) (P for trend = 0.05). Similar but nonsignificant inverse associations were observed for α-, γ-, and δ-tocopherols but not for β-tocopherol. These results were similar regardless of the presence of a history of stroke. Dietary tocopherol intake was inversely associated with risk of disabling dementia, but its independent effect was uncertain owing to a high intercorrelation of α-linolenic linoleic acids with total tocopherol intake. Even with such confounding, a diet high in tocopherols may help prevent the onset of dementia.

Vitamin B3 levels in women who experience first-trimester miscarriage

Miscarriage is the most common complication in early pregnancy. It was recently reported in mice that miscarriage can be prevented through the administration of niacin. We conducted a prospective, exploratory pilot study involving 24 women who were less than 14 weeks pregnant. Neither niacin intake (P = 0.24) nor urinary vitamin B3 measured as the 1-methyl-5-carboxylamide-2-pyridone/N-1-methylnicotinamide (2-pyr/MNA) ratio (P = 1.00) predicted miscarriage. However, the difference in mean 2-pyr/MNA ratios between women who miscarried and controls suggests there may be a threshold niacin level protective in miscarriage prevention warranting further investigation.

Reproducibility of dietary intakes of macronutrients, specific food groups, and dietary patterns in 211 050 adults in the UK Biobank study

To detect modest associations of dietary intake with disease risk, observational studies need to be large and control for moderate measurement errors. The reproducibility of dietary intakes of macronutrients, food groups and dietary patterns (vegetarian and Mediterranean) was assessed in adults in the UK Biobank study on up to five occasions using a web-based 24-h dietary assessment (n 211 050), and using short FFQ recorded at baseline (n 502 655) and after 4 years (n 20 346). When the means of two 24-h assessments were used, the intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) for macronutrients varied from 0·63 for alcohol to 0·36 for polyunsaturated fat. The ICC for food groups also varied from 0·68 for fruit to 0·18 for fish. The ICC for the FFQ varied from 0·66 for meat and fruit to 0·48 for bread and cereals. The reproducibility was higher for vegetarian status (κ > 0·80) than for the Mediterranean dietary pattern (ICC = 0·45). Overall, the reproducibility of pairs of 24-h dietary assessments and single FFQ used in the UK Biobank were comparable with results of previous prospective studies using conventional methods. Analyses of diet-disease relationships need to correct for both measurement error and within-person variability in dietary intake in order to reliably assess any such associations with disease in the UK Biobank.

The nutrigenetic influence of the interaction between dietary vitamin E and TXN and COMT gene polymorphisms on waist circumference: a case control study

Background

Abdominal obesity (AO) is a common modifiable risk factor for certain non-communicable diseases associated with enhanced oxidative stress (OS). The objective of this work was to investigate whether the interaction between antioxidant vitamin intake and OS-related polymorphisms modulates gene-associated anthropometry in a Spanish population.

Methods

A total of 246 subjects with AO, and 492 age and gender matched non-AO subjects were included in the study. Anthropometric, biochemical, and OS parameters, and antioxidant dietary intake data were assessed using validated procedures. DNA from white blood cells was isolated and the genotype of seven polymorphisms from genes involved in OS (pro-oxidant and antioxidant) were analyzed using the SNPlex system. The effects of the c.-793T > C polymorphism on promoter activity and thus thioredoxin (TXN) activity were examined using reporter assays.

Results

The AO group had higher 8-Oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine levels and took in less vitamin A and vitamin E compared to the non-AO group. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the rs2301241 polymorphism in TXN and rs740603 in catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) were associated with waist circumference (WC) and AO. Moreover, these polymorphisms were more strongly associated with variations in WC in subjects with low vitamin E intakes. A promoter assay revealed that the T to C conversion at c.-793 (rs2301241) induced a more than two fold increase in reporter gene expression.

Conclusions

WC is associated both with dietary vitamin E intake and genetic variants of TXN and COMT suggesting that existence of a complex nutrigenetic pathway that involves regulation of AO.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-015-0652-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.