Dietary Methodology Advancements in the Development of Short Instruments to Assess Dietary Fat

Measuring dietary fat in a brief manner is a goal of many research and community-based studies. Short instruments for assessing diet have utility if they meet acceptable standards of reliability and validity for the population groups with which they are used. This research editorial reviews progress in dietary assessment and the development of short dietary instruments; it also provides an overview of three recent studies that used different short instruments to assess dietary fat intake and compared estimates with those derived from other dietary assessment methods. The author notes that these three studies contribute to the knowledge base on dietary assessment, and in particular, on the development and application of short instruments to rank or screen individuals for intervention studies, estimate dietary fat intake among specific population groups, and assess dietary risk and change in intake over time.