OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to describe the development of a food frequency questionnaire for adolescents from the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, Brazil. METHODS: The selection of food items included in the questionnaire was done by recording the foods consumed during 3 days by 430 students aged 12 to 19 years from the public schools of Niterói (RJ) Brasil. The most cited food items, which contributed to 95% of the total energy and nutrient intakes were included in the food frequency questionnaire list. For each item, the most frequent portion size referred to in the records was defined as the reference portion. The food frequency questionnaire presented different frequency options according to the kind of food. RESULTS: In the dietary records, 306 food items were cited. From those, 249 were included in the food frequency questionnaire, grouped or by themselves, forming a list with 90 items. The fourteen most cited items by the adolescents from Rio de Janeiro in this and in a previous study were associated with eight frequency options; 18 and 58 other food items were associated with seven and five frequency options respectively. CONCLUSION: The study enabled the development of a food frequency questionnaire for adolescents from the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, which will eventually be submitted to reliability and validity analysis. This food frequency questionnaire represents a valuable tool for epidemiologic investigations of food intake among adolescents.
Adolescent; Food intake; Diet surveys; Questionnaire; Diet records
