Abandon neither the food frequency questionnaire nor the dietary fat-breast cancer hypothesis.

摘要

To the Editors: We have read with interest the ongoing correspondence mainly between Kristal and Potter on the one hand and Willett and Hu on the other. Because the correspondence has touched on several of our publications, we would like to clarify some points raised by Willett and Hu, particularly in their most recent letter (1). Willett and Hu discuss the virtues of food records as reference measurements to validate food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) because the cognitive processes involved in completing a food record (recording in real time) versus a FFQ (remembering past intake) are very different, and therefore, "correlated errors" are minimized. There are no published data indicating that a food record is superior to other self-reported reference instruments, such as multiple 24-h dietary recalls (which rely on memory), for validating FFQs.