Skip to main content
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health logoLink to Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
. 2003 Jan;57(1):74–80. doi: 10.1136/jech.57.1.74

Comparative analysis of nutrition data from national, household, and individual levels: results from a WHO-CINDI collaborative project in Canada, Finland, Poland, and Spain*

L Serra-Majem 1, D MacLean 1, L Ribas 1, D Brule 1, W Sekula 1, R Prattala 1, R Garcia-Closas 1, A Yngve 1, M Lalonde 1, A Petrasovits 1
PMCID: PMC1732273  PMID: 12490653

Abstract

Study objective: This project determined to what extent data on diet and nutrition, which were collected in a non-uniform manner, could be harmonised and pooled for international and national comparison.

Design: Direct comparisons of dietary data between studies were made using food balance sheets (FBS), household budget surveys (HBS), and individual dietary data (IDS); comparisons were also made within countries. Differences in study design and methodological approaches were taken into consideration. Data from research projects from the following four World Health Organisation (WHO) Countrywide Integrated Noncommunicable Disease Intervention (CINDI) countries were included—Canada, Finland, Poland, and Spain.

Main results: FBS overestimated food consumption and nutrient intake compared to IDS. Results between HBS and IDS were quite similar, except for fish, meat, pulses and vegetables, which were underestimated by HBS, and sugar and honey and cereals, which were overestimated. Percentages of energy from fat, carbohydrates and proteins were higher when estimated from FBS, HBS, and IDS respectively.

Conclusions: Results suggest that estimations from these three sources of dietary data are difficult to compare because they are measuring different levels of dietary information. The understanding of their relations may be important in formulating and evaluating a nutrition policy.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (236.0 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Becker W., Foley S., Shelley E., Gibney M. Energy under-reporting in Swedish and Irish dietary surveys: implications for food-based dietary guidelines. Br J Nutr. 1999 Apr;81 (Suppl 2):S127–S131. doi: 10.1017/s0007114599000975. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Beer-Borst S., Hercberg S., Morabia A., Bernstein M. S., Galan P., Galasso R., Giampaoli S., McCrum E., Panico S., Preziosi P. Dietary patterns in six european populations: results from EURALIM, a collaborative European data harmonization and information campaign. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2000 Mar;54(3):253–262. doi: 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600934. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Crane N. T., Lewis C. J., Yetley E. A. Do time trends in food supply levels of macronutrients reflect survey estimates of macronutrient intake? Am J Public Health. 1992 Jun;82(6):862–866. doi: 10.2105/ajph.82.6.862. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Friedman G. D., Cutter G. R., Donahue R. P., Hughes G. H., Hulley S. B., Jacobs D. R., Jr, Liu K., Savage P. J. CARDIA: study design, recruitment, and some characteristics of the examined subjects. J Clin Epidemiol. 1988;41(11):1105–1116. doi: 10.1016/0895-4356(88)90080-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Huijbregts P. P., Feskens E. J., Räsänen L., Alberti-Fidanza A., Mutanen M., Fidanza F., Kromhout D. Dietary intake in five ageing cohorts of men in Finland, Italy and The Netherlands. Eur J Clin Nutr. 1995 Nov;49(11):852–860. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Löwik M. R. Possible use of food consumption surveys to estimate exposure to additives. Food Addit Contam. 1996 May-Jun;13(4):427–441. doi: 10.1080/02652039609374428. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Morabia A., Beer-Borst S., Hercberg S. Locally based surveys, unite! The EURALIM example. EURALIM Study Group. European Information Campaign on Diet and Nutrition. Am J Public Health. 1998 Aug;88(8):1153–1155. doi: 10.2105/ajph.88.8.1153. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Morabia A. From disease surveillance to the surveillance of risk factors. Am J Public Health. 1996 May;86(5):625–627. doi: 10.2105/ajph.86.5.625. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Nelson M., Dyson P. A., Paul A. A. Family food purchases and home food consumption: comparison of nutrient contents. Br J Nutr. 1985 Sep;54(2):373–387. doi: 10.1079/bjn19850123. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Riboli E. Nutrition and cancer: background and rationale of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Ann Oncol. 1992 Dec;3(10):783–791. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.annonc.a058097. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Rodríguez-Artalejo F., Banegas J. R., Graciani A., Hernández-Vecino R., del Rey-Calero J. Food supply versus household survey data: nutrient consumption trends for Spain, 1958-1988. Eur J Epidemiol. 1996 Aug;12(4):367–371. doi: 10.1007/BF00145299. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Sasaki S., Kesteloot H. Value of Food and Agriculture Organization data on food-balance sheets as a data source for dietary fat intake in epidemiologic studies. Am J Clin Nutr. 1992 Oct;56(4):716–723. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/56.4.716. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Serra-Majem L., Ribas L., Lloveras G., Salleras L. Changing patterns of fat consumption in Spain. Eur J Clin Nutr. 1993 Sep;47 (Suppl 1):S13–S20. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. The World Health Organization MONICA Project (monitoring trends and determinants in cardiovascular disease): a major international collaboration. WHO MONICA Project Principal Investigators. J Clin Epidemiol. 1988;41(2):105–114. doi: 10.1016/0895-4356(88)90084-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Trichopoulou A., Kanellou A., Lagiou P., Zintzaras E. Integration of nutritional data based on household budget surveys in European countries. DAFNE I Group. Data Food Networking. Proc Nutr Soc. 1996 Jul;55(2):699–704. doi: 10.1079/pns19960066. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES