PubMed HealthSearch

Biomedical subjects

H L Metzner

Publications and source records attributed to H L Metzner.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

Comparison of three consecutive-day and three random-day records of dietary intake.

We conducted this study to determine whether 3 days of dietary records from randomly selected days or from consecutive days more closely estimated the energy and nutrient intake values obtained from 16 days over a 1-year period. Participants consisted of 228 men and women, black and white. No one of three random-day samples or one of five consecutive-day samples better estimated energy and nutrient intake. The group means for intake of energy and seven nutrients were similar for random and consecutive days. However, for energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate, and calcium, the means of the absolute differences between the values for 16 days and those for the random days were significantly smaller than the corresponding means between the values for 16 days and those for consecutive days. Random-day samples may be preferable for describing dietary intake of individuals and small groups when the gain in reliability is worth the cost.

Adult

Characteristics of individuals and long term reproducibility of dietary reports: the Tecumseh Diet Methodology Study.

Food frequency reports in 1967-1969 were compared to frequency reports of the same foods asked retrospectively in 1982-1983 and 1967-1969 for 1184 respondents aged 45-64 years in the Tecumseh Community Health Study. The kappa statistic for concordance of the retrospective and baseline reports was used as a summary measure of the individual's ability to reproduce his or her earlier diet report. Reproducibility was estimated for total diet, represented by 83 foods, and for 9 subsets of foods of epidemiologic interest. In bivariate and multivariate analyses, reproducibility was strongly related to stability of diet; those whose diets changed least over the 15-year period had greatest diet reproducibility. Greater total diet reproducibility was also found among men with higher education, among women of less than 110% desirable weight reporting no special diet and among women reporting no medications. Consistent with current models of memory, the retrospective report of diet was strongly related to the current report of diet. Agreement between the retrospective and baseline diet reports was greater than agreement between the current and baseline diet reports. This indicates that, as a proxy for past diet, the retrospective report of diet is superior to the current report. Similar relationships were found for the 9 subset of foods.

Body Weight

Comparison of surrogate and subject reports of dietary practices, smoking habits and weight among married couples in the Tecumseh Diet Methodology Study.

Agreement between surrogate and subject reports of current food frequencies and other eating habits, smoking behavior and weight was assessed in 1982-1983 for 180 husbands and wives, aged 45 through 64 years. Agreement was measured by per cent exact agreement and weighted kappa for frequencies of 30 itemized foods or food groups, and for surrogate- and subject-based quintiles of frequencies of eight broad food groups and of vitamin A and C consumption indexes. Surrogate and subject mean frequencies were generally similar, but at the individual level of analysis, agreement varied widely. Agreement was greatest, among the food items and groups, for alcoholic beverages, and among the other items, for smoking status. Extreme misclassification by quintile was very small, but only 40% of persons self-classified in either extreme quintile were similarly classified by their spouses. This level of misclassification may result in the dilution of real relationships between diet and health.

Aged

Comparison of estimated nutrient intakes by food frequency and dietary records in adults.

Sixteen days of dietary recall and records collected over 1 year for 228 respondents were compared with an estimate of "usual" diet based on a 116-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for the study year. Respondents were white and black men and women aged 24 to 51. Mean energy values for the total group were 2,111 kcal for the recall/records and 2,766 kcal for the FFQ, a 31% difference. The mean food energy and nutrient values obtained by the FFQ were consistently and significantly higher than the mean recall/record values for all four race-sex groups, although the degree of difference varied by nutrient, food group, and demographic characteristics of the respondents. For the nutrients compared, the smallest difference between methods was for protein--27% for the total group. The greatest difference was for vitamin A--123% for the total sample. Sex-race specific correlation coefficients between methods were relatively high for calcium, vitamin C, and iron.

Adult

Correspondence between perceptions of change in diet and 15-year change in diet reports in the Tecumseh Diet Methodology Study.

As part of an effort to assess the most reliable method of obtaining information about long-term dietary intake, a study was conducted of the correspondence between perception of change in diet and measured change in reported diet from 1967 to 1982. Respondents were 1,201 men and women participants in the Tecumseh Food Frequency Study of 1967-1969 who were 45-64 years of age in 1982-1983, the time of the Diet Methodology Study. Perceptions of change were obtained by asking respondents directly if they thought they currently ate each of 12 food groups more often, less often, or as often as they did during the year of their earlier interview. Measured change was obtained by subtracting each respondent's baseline frequency for each of the 12 food groups from his or her current frequency. For 10 of the 12 food groups, correspondence was found between perception of change and measured change; fats and oils added at the table and meat were the exceptions. Significant linear relationships were found between perceptions and measured change for all food groups except fats and oils. However, greatly varying coefficients were associated with terms such as more often or as often as before, thereby limiting the potential utility of combining perceptions of change with current frequencies to obtain a reliable measure of baseline frequencies.

Data Collection

Counting calories: partitioning energy intake estimates from a food frequency questionnaire.

Differences in energy estimates between a food frequency questionnaire and a multi-day dietary record can be partitioned into distinct components due to differences in reported frequency of consumption and in reported serving size, and to differences in nutrient composition between the questionnaire standards and the foods reported on the records. The effect of each component on the relative validity of the questionnaire can be assessed by examining its contribution to the differences between the two methods in estimated group intake and in the relative ranking of individual respondents. This methodology was used for the 1984-1985 University of Michigan Food Frequency Study, in which the estimated energy intake from a quantitative food frequency questionnaire was compared with that from 16 days of food records collected over the course of a year from 228 white and black men and women aged 24-51 years. For all race-sex subgroups, mean energy intake estimated from the questionnaire was significantly greater than mean intake estimated from the record. Within race-sex subgroups, the correlations between estimates from the two methods were low, and agreement in classification by tertiles was poor. The differences in group mean energy intake between the methods were due to the effects of discrepancies in both serving size and frequency of consumption. However, the low correlations and poor agreement in classification for individual respondents were due principally to the effect of discrepancies in frequency. These results suggest that improving the accuracy of frequency estimation is a key element in increasing the relative validity of food frequency questionnaires used for epidemiologic research.

Adult

Reproducibility of reports of frequency of food use in the Tecumseh Diet Methodology Study.

Frequency reports in 1967-1969 for 83 foods were compared to frequency reports for the same foods asked retrospectively in 1982-1983 about use in 1967-1969 for 1,184 respondents aged 45-64 in the Tecumseh Community Health Study cohort. Food frequency reports of the current (1982-1983) diet were also compared to baseline reports to indicate diet stability and to retrospective reports to indicate the influence of current diet on retrospective reporting. Comparisons were also made for 13 food groups and vitamin A and C indices. Short-term reproducibility of seven foods, measured by two reports 1-3 weeks apart in 1967-1969, was compared to long-term reproducibility for the same foods. Short-term reproducibility was consistently greater than long-term. Reproducibility was associated positively with stability of use. For the two nutrient indices and nine of the ten food groups examined, mean intake estimated from the retrospective report differed significantly from mean intake from the baseline report. Agreement between retrospective and current reports exceeded agreement between retrospective and baseline reports, indicating that retrospective reports were greatly influenced by current behavior; yet, the retrospective reports were better indicators of baseline consumption than were the current reports. While misclassification from use of the retrospective report to measure baseline consumption was large, risk differences may still be detected with usual sample sizes.

Ascorbic Acid

The relationship between frequency of eating and adiposity in adult men and women in the Tecumseh Community Health Study.

The relationship between frequency of eating and adiposity was studied in a cross-sectional population of about 1000 men and 1000 women ages 35 to 69. A detailed 24-hr diet recall interview was administered by trained interviewers. Frequency of eating--eight categories--was determined by computer program using reported actual eating times and food consumed. The adiposity variable was an index using two skinfold measurements, height and weight. An analysis of covariance removing the effect of caloric intake showed that frequency of eating was related inversely to the adiposity index for men and women separately with statistical significance at the 1% level.

Adipose Tissue

Smoking, socioeconomic status, and chronic respiratory disease.

Prevalence rates of chronic bronchitis and asthma and mean levels of ventilatory lung function were related to age, smoking habits, occupation, education, and income in 4,699 men and women living in Tecumseh, Michigan. The prevalence of chronic bronchitis was higher and mean levels of 1-sec forced expiratory volume were lower in cigarette smokers than in other men and women, and heavy smokers were affected more than light smokers. The prevalence of chronic bronchitis was higher and mean 1-sec forced expiratory volume was lower in blue collar workers than in white collar workers. Men and women with some college education had higher mean values for 1-sec forced expiratory volume than did those with less formal education, and the prevalence of chronic bronchitis was least among men with most education. Mean levels of 1-sec forced expiratory volume were slightly lower in those with the smallest incomes. There were no significant associations between the prevalence of asthma and smoking habits, occupation, education, or income. Most of the differences in the prevalence of chronic bronchitis and mean 1-sec forced expiratory volume in men and women of different occupational, educational, or income classes were due to differences in smoking habits. In comparison with smoking, poor occupational, educational, or economic circumstances had only a weak deleterious effect.

Adult