Project Number: 1950-51530-008-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Jul 03, 2004
End Date: Apr 30, 2009

Objective:
1) Population Specific Food Frequency Questionnaire(PSFFQ)Development and Validation: Develop and validate a PSFFQ in a randomly sampled subset of the GRAS cohort. 2) Outcome Measurement: Administer the developed PSFFQ to a larger sample of the full GRAS cohort and capture nutritional status, functional, life quality, health care resource use, and morbidity and mortality outcomes as the cohort ages in place.

Approach:
Objective 1 goals will be achieved in two phases: instrument development and instrument validation. Both mailed and telephone-administered versions of the PSFFQ will be developed and tested. Since further development of design and methods for Objective 2 requires completion of the first objective, selection of the mode of PSFFQ administration and accompanying measures will be based upon systematic review of Objective 1 findings. The GRAS is a longitudinal cohort study and the intent is to continue to monitor health outcomes at several year intervals as in the past. This same capability will exist for participants targeted with the new PSFFQ. The outcome measures listed as follows are also parameters successfully acquired in prior GRAS studies. Medical diagnoses, mortality, and health care resource use will be obtained from the Geisinger Health Care System database per established procedures. The electronic medical record (EPIC) will be used to facilitate data acquisition from multiple clinic sites. Function/physical activity and life quality measures will be obtained with a battery of self-report mailed questionnaires that have been subject to previous validation and testing (Life Space Assessment, Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly, activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, and 12 item short form Health Survey, SF-12). Nutritional status measures will be obtained from mailed self-report questionnaires and annual clinic encounters. Proposed measures that will be based upon preliminary testing in Objective 1 include height, weight, BMI, weight change (volitional versus non-volitional), waist circumference, and selected laboratory biomarkers (depending upon availability and funding).