A new online guide on dietary measures and estimated nutrient intake within and across eight CLOSER partner studies has been launched today.
This new CLOSER resource provides guidance on the definitions, measurements and interpretation of the dietary data collected in the following eight CLOSER partner studies:
- Hertfordshire Cohort Study (HCS)
- 1946 National Survey for Health and Development (NSHD)
- 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS)
- 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)
- Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS)
- The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)
- Southampton Women’s Survey (SWS)
- Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)
The guide is divided into four sections:
- An introduction to dietary measurement in cohort and longitudinal studies, including an overview of dietary research in context and policy considerations;
- A review of key dietary assessment tools (DATs) and how these can be used in nutrient intake estimation;
- Descriptions of the dietary data in the studies, outlining: (i) how dietary assessments were conducted at different sweeps/ages, (ii) where nutrient intake was ascertained, and (iii) how the data collected have been used in research and what key findings have been established using them;
- Discussion of how dietary data can be harmonised, with illustrative examples.
The guide spans data collected over the last 70 years, with the earliest collection of diet data in 1950. The guide also provides links to the source questionnaires where available, as well as detail on response numbers.
The guide is intended to support researchers in finding and using the dietary data, both within single studies and across the studies.
This guide was created as part of a CLOSER project: Scoping existing dietary data available in CLOSER to support cross-cohort research questions, led by Jane Maddock, who wrote this guide with Dara O’Neill, Sian Robinson, Sarah Crozier, Karen Jameson, Brian Dodgeon, Matthew Suderman, Pauline Emmett, Karon Gush, Jonathon Burton, John Payne, Meena Kumari, and Rebecca Hardy.
Explore the online guide to dietary data in longitudinal studies