Implementation of food frequency questionnaire for the assessment of total dietary arsenic intake in Bangladesh: Part B, preliminary findings

• Published in: Environmental geochemistry and health Vol. 31; no. 1; pp. 221 - 238
• Main Authors: Khan, Nasreen Islam, Bruce, David, Naidu, Ravi, Owens, Gary
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands 01-04-2009; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age; Age Distribution; Aged; Arsenic; Arsenic - analysis; Bangladesh; Child; Child, Preschool; Databases, Factual; Diet; Diet Surveys; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Exposure - analysis; Environmental Health; Environmental Pollutants - analysis; Female; Food Contamination; Gender; Geochemistry; Health risks; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Male; Middle Aged; Original Paper; Public Health; Questionnaires; Risk assessment; Risk Assessment - methods; Rural areas; Rural Health - statistics & numerical data; Rural populations; Sex Factors; Soil Science & Conservation; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Terrestrial Pollution; Water Supply - standards; Young Adult; Bangladesh; Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ); Dietary intake; Exposure; Arsenic; Dietary pattern
• ISSN: 0269-4042; 1573-2983
• DOI: 10.1007/s10653-008-9232-3

Dietary intake of water and food has been identified as one of the major pathways for arsenic (As) exposure in the rural population of Bangladesh. Therefore, realistic assessment and measurement of dietary intake patterns are important for the development of an accurate estimate of As exposure and human health risk assessment. One important consideration is to identify an appropriate tool for measuring dietary intake. In this study an interviewer-administered Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) was implemented to determine age and gender specific dietary intake. The developed FFQ was unique because it developed a synergy between field dietary assessment and As concentration measurements in various environmental media. The resulting integrated database provided an accurate framework for the process of As exposure and human health risk assessment. The preliminary results reported here from the FFQ demonstrated that this technique could be used in rural areas as a tool to assess As exposure and the associated human health risk.