DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF SMART-PHONE APPLICATION FFQ SCREENER FOR ASSESSING CHOLESTEROL INTAKE AMONG PALESTINIAN POPULATIONS
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Date
2023-10-21
Authors
Amneh Abdel-Aal
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Abstract
Abstract
Background: Cholesterol is an essential material existing in each animal cell and has many functions that are related to the body's health. However, additional intake of dietary cholesterol is related to elevate cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) incidence. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends cholesterol intake to be lower than 300 mg/day. On the other hand, using technology in diet assessment is considered an effective and alternative way to conventional procedures such as food frequency questionnaires (FFQ). The study aimed to develop and validate an FFQ screener of dietary cholesterol intake assessment using a smart phone app. among the Palestinian population.
Methodology: One hundred participants from Palestinian populations, were shared by convenient sampling, aged from 18-60 years. The study was done in five stages; stage 1: development of FFQ screener. Stage 2: development of the app (Pal Chol app ®). Stage 3: content validity. Stage 4: test and re-test reliability. Finally; stage 5: criterion validity. Correlation; was done by Pearson correlation to assess the reliability and validity, and the difference between means was done also for the validity test. P-value<0.05 is considered statistically significant.
Results: In the pilot study, there was a significant (strong) correlation (r=0.7, p-value=0.000) between the test and re-test results. For the validation study; the mean age was 26.24 ±7.15 years. The mean difference between cholesterol intake from the app. and 3 days of food recall was significant (p-value=0.000), and for a correlation; there was a correlation but week (r=0.31, p-value=0.006). Furthermore, the usability test of the app. was compared with 3 days of food recalls; the majority of participants confirmed the usability of this app.
Conclusions: In our study, we were successful; in developing an FFQ screener; that specialized in the assessment of dietary cholesterol intake among the Palestinian population aged between 18 to 60 years. Nevertheless, we need further improvement and revision on the app.
Keywords: CVDs, dietary cholesterol, FFQ screener, validation studies