Assessment of a short food frequency questionnaire as predictor of hypercholesterolemia in adolescents.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate a short questionnaire as predictor of serum cholesterol obtained from a probabilistic sample of adolescents. METHODS A probabilistic sample of 5th to 12th grade students from state public schools in Niteroi, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was drawn based on 28 classes. Five hundred seventy-seven subjects had their blood collected, and 539 answered the simplified questionnaire (23.7% of non-respondents). The questionnaire internal consistence was evaluated through Cronbachs alpha, and agreement between cholesterol levels and food intake was assessed through weighted Kappa (Kw). RESULTS Weighted Kappa value was very low (<- 0.05), despite the good internal consistence of the questionnaire (Cronbachs alpha > 0.66). CONCLUSION The results show that the short questionnaire was not a predictor of cholesterol concentration.