MICA: Partnership for Improvement and Innovation in Dietary Assessment Technology (PIIDAT)

饮食和疾病关系的研究很难进行，而且经常产生相互矛盾的结果。问题的出现是因为在大量人口中测量饮食是具有挑战性的。饮食研究中出现测量误差的原因有很多，包括缺乏专业知识，评估工具上的食物选择有限，份量不准确，食物数据库不完整以及成本。卫生从业人员还需要适当的工具来评估患者的饮食诊断目的和监测治疗。本提案的主要目的是改进报告食物和营养摄入的饮食研究的设计、实施、分析和解释，以减少测量误差和偏差。此外，该伙伴关系将通过提供有效的工具来测量食物和营养素摄入量，从而增强研究人员和临床医生的能力。这将对一系列利益攸关方群体有价值，有可能产生重要的公共卫生影响。目前，除非研究人员或从业人员是营养领域的专家，否则他们很难在他们的研究中包括饮食行为的测量。我们的目标是提供一种资源，以满足准确有效地测量饮食的挑战，并结合新技术的发展。这将通过创建一个独特的网站来实现，该网站包含有效的、基于证据的饮食评估工具，以及与生成所消耗食物和营养素结果的分析系统相关的使用指南。该资源将提供以标准化方式使用的最佳评估工具；提高本领域研究的质量。纳入网站的工具将由一组专家选择，以提供值得信赖的最佳饮食评估工具。这些可以是问卷；使用面试的形式；或者在线完成。我们预计最初将在网站上包含10-20个工具。现有的纸质问卷将被转换为可下载的pdf在线格式。我们将建立收集、分析和报告饮食与健康研究的新标准。经验证的膳食评估工具（dat - library）的网站将是互动的，并为选择最合适的工具提供指导；可列印的问卷及表格；在线数据录入和分析功能。与此同时，我们将扩大和改进英国现有的食品成分表。英国的饮食越来越多样化，商店里有大约7万种食品，而标准食品成分表的扩大却没有跟上，只有大约7000种食品。我们计划将现有的国家公共和食品行业品牌食品餐桌联系起来，以扩大食品的选择范围。我们将利用食品生产商、快餐零售商和超市提供的包装营养信息来扩大食品供应。国家公共和食品工业品牌食品表将与dat图书馆中的支持分析工具相关联。国际食品表也可以被纳入。该项目的最后一个要素将是在膳食评估工具和食物成分表之间创建一个在线界面。食物表将链接到dat图书馆的工具。该界面将允许用户访问工具并进行分析。访问要么是免费的，要么是最低成本的，以支持资源的可持续性，保持数据库的最新状态。这一伙伴关系将成为对专家和非专家都有价值的营养研究人员、科学家和卫生从业人员的独特资源。没有其他网站将这里提出的资源集中在一个地方，使这个建议成为寻找营养和饮食评估研究支持的最全面的地方。拥有一个中央在线资源将是提高饮食和健康领域研究质量的一种成本效益高的方法。

Studies of diet and disease relationships are difficult to carry out and often generate conflicting results. Problems occur because measuring diet in large populations is challenging. Measurement error happens in dietary studies for lots of reasons including lack of expertise, limited food choices on assessment tools, inaccurate portion sizes, incomplete food databases and cost. Health practitioners also need suitable tools for assessment of diet in patients for diagnostic purposes and monitoring treatments.The main aim of this proposal is to improve the design, conduct, analysis and interpretation of diet studies reporting food & nutrient intakes to reduce measurement error and bias. In addition, the partnership will empower researchers and clinicians through provision of valid tools to measure food and nutrient intakes. This will be of value for a range of stakeholder groups, with the potential to make important public health impacts.Currently, unless researchers or practitioners are experts in the area of nutrition it is extremely difficult for them to include measurement of dietary behaviour in their studies. We aim to provide a resource to meet the challenges of measuring diet accurately and efficiently that incorporates new developments in technology. This will be achieved by creating a unique website containing valid, evidence based dietary assessment tools along with guidance on use linked to an analysis system generating results of foods and nutrients consumed. This resource will provide access to the best assessment tools for use in a standardised way; increasing the quality of research which is undertaken in this area.Tools for inclusion on the website will be chosen by a group of experts to provide trustworthy selection of the best dietary assessment tools. These could be questionnaires; use an interview format; or on-line completion. We expect initially 10-20 tools to be included on the website. Existing paper based questionnaires included will be converted to an on-line format with downloadable pdfs. We will establish new standards for collecting, analysing and reporting studies of diet and health. The web-site hosting the validated dietary assessment tools (DAT-eLibrary) will be interactive and provide guidance for choice of the most appropriate tool for use; printable questionnaires and forms; on-line data entry and analysis functions. At the same time, we will expand and improve existing food composition tables for the UK. The growing diversity of the UK diet with around 70,000 food items in stores has not been matched by an expansion of the standard food composition tables, with only ~7,000 items. We plan to link existing national public & food industry branded food tables to expand the choice of foods available. We will use back of pack nutrient information from food producers, fast food retailers & supermarkets to expand the food tables. National public and food industry branded food tables will be linked to support analysis of tools in the DAT-eLibrary. International food tables can also be incorporated.The final element of the project will be to create an on-line interface between the dietary assessment tools and the food composition tables. The food tables will be linked to the tools in the DAT-eLibrary. The interface will allow users to access the tools and undertake analysis. Access will either be free or minimal cost to support sustainability of the resource keeping the database up-to-date.This partnership will be a unique resource for nutrition researchers, scientists and health practitioners of value to both experts and non-experts. No other website combines in one place the resources proposed here, making this proposal the most comprehensive place to find support for research in nutrition & dietary assessment. Having a central on-line resource will be a cost effective approach to improving the quality of research in the diet and health area.