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ARS Home » Plains Area » Grand Forks, North Dakota » Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center » Healthy Body Weight Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #294297

Title: Essential steps in the analysis of NHANES dietary data

Author
item KRANZ, SIBYLLE - Purdue University
item DODD, KEVIN - National Cancer Institute (NCI, NIH)
item JUAN, WEN YEN - Us Food & Drug Administration (FDA)
item Jahns, Lisa
item JOHNSON, LUANN - University Of North Dakota

Submitted to: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/3/2012
Publication Date: 4/9/2013
Citation: Kranz, S., Dodd, K., Juan, W., Jahns, L.A., Johnson, L. 2013. Essential steps in the analysis of NHANES dietary data. Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Conference. 27:848.20.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Analyzing dietary intake data of nationally representative samples is a highly sought skill, especially in the pursuit of public health recommendations or the evaluation of dietary guidance. Although NHANES are publicly available data and the CDC provide guidance a number of analytical programs to help researchers conduct analysis, the merging of survey waves and calculation of average consumption is rather challenging. Analysts must be aware of changes that may have occurred between each 2 yr cycle of the continuous NHANES and FNDDS, the food and nutrient database used to calculate dietary intakes, including elimination or changes in foodcodes. Units of intake, e.g. g/100 kcals, g/100 g, or g/day, can impact findings and must be chosen in relation to the research question. We provide step-by-step instructions on the data manipulation required to analyze dietary intake data from NHANES 2003-2010. As our primary interest is the intake of MyPlate equivalents of food groups and subgroups (e.g., cup or ounce equivalents), individual food files were merged with the MyPlate Equivalents Database 2.0, the CNNP addendum to MPED 2.0 and an author-developed list of proxy matched food items. The potential need for correcting data for the distribution of food groups or nutrients will be discussed.