Relative validity and reproducibility of dietary quality scores from a short diet screener in a multi-ethnic Asian population

Short screeners for assessing dietary quality are lacking in Asia. We recently developed a short thirty-seven-item diet screener (DS). The present study aimed to evaluate reproducibility and relative validity of the DS in assessing a priori dietary quality indices (DQI; i.e. the Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 (AHEI-2010), alternate Mediterranean Diet (aMed) and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet) and intakes of selected foods. DS administration and biomarker measurement took place twice within a 4-month interval. A 163-item FFQ was administered one month after the second DS administration. Singapore, a multi-ethnic urban Asian country. Singapore residents (n 161) aged 18-79 years, of Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnicity. Reproducibility coefficients for the two DS were 0·71 (DQI) and 0·65 (food groups). Correlations (ρ) between mean DS and FFQ DQI scores were 0·51 (AHEI-2010), 0·50 (aMed) and 0·61 (DASH; all P