Risk Factor Assessment

The Risk Factor Assessment Branch in NCI’s Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program supports research into areas including:

  • diet and physical activity metrics
  • methods, tools, technologies, and resources for risk factor assessment
  • obesity policy research
Learn More About

Program Directors

Investigators seeking grant funding for risk factor assessment projects are encouraged to contact scientific staff in the Risk Factor Assessment Branch (RFAB) with questions.

RFAB Program Directors

Featured Funding Opportunities

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Obesity Policy Evaluation Research
NOT-DK-20-035 (R01 – Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Expires September 8, 2023

Diet and Physical Activity Assessment Methodology
PA-18-856 (R01 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed) and PAR-18-857 (R21 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Expires September 8, 2021

Time-Sensitive Obesity Policy and Program Evaluation
PAR-18-854 (R01 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Expires September 11, 2021

View all FOAs related to cancer control research.

Interest Areas

Learn more about RFAB’s interests in the following areas, relevant funding opportunity announcements, related EGRP events, and staff contacts.

Dietary Assessment

EGRP partners with others at NIH, NIH, and other organizations to increase the precision of dietary intake estimates by improving self-report of dietary intake and the analytic procedures for processing reported information. This research will facilitate dietary monitoring and nutritional epidemiology efforts and to advance our understanding of the relationship of diet to cancer outcomes.

Physical Activity Assessment

EGRP partners with others at NIH, NIH, and other organizations to support the collection of physical activity data in existing and planned surveys. Doing so will develop more complete assessments of individuals' physical activity based on information derived from multiple contexts, including transportation, occupation, and recreation.

Obesity Policy Research

EGRP partners with others at NIH, NIH, and other organizations to support various initiatives in obesity policy research, including research on diet and physical activity that may inform policymaking at local, state, or federal levels and measurement of the food and physical activity environments.

Biomarkers

EGRP is interested in research to improve understanding of how biomarkers can be used in early detection/screening of cancer, identifying environmental exposures that may lead to cancer, and as markers of nutrition that either promote or protect against cancer.

Featured Resources

Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour Diet Assessment Tool (ASA24)

ASA24 is a freely available web-based tool for epidemiologic, interventional, behavioral, or clinical research from NCI that enables multiple automatically coded self-administered 24-hour recalls and food records.

Diet History Questionnaire (DHQ)

A free food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) developed by NCI staff for use by researchers, clinicians, or teachers.

Healthy Eating Index (HEI)

The HEI is a measure of diet quality, independent of quantity, that can be used to assess compliance with the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans and monitor changes in dietary patterns.

Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET) Values

This webpage provides the MET values for activities in the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) and the 2002 Census Occupational Classification System (OCS).

Health-Related Surveys

Surveys containing information which may be useful for epidemiology studies, including behavioral risk factors, health information, medical care, and more.

Current Initiatives

Keep up to date about the current Risk Factor Assessment projects and initiatives ongoing at EGRP.

Dietary Patterns Methods Project

This Project compared key diet quality indices and their associations with cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality. It was initiated to strengthen the scientific evidence base on dietary patterns and inform the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Past Initiatives

Get information and view details about the Risk Factor Assessment projects and initiatives at EGRP that have been completed.

Interactive Diet and Activity Tracking in AARP (IDATA)

The purpose of the Interactive Diet and Activity Tracking in AARP (IDATA) study was to evaluate and compare the measurement error structure of diet and physical activity assessment tools against reference biomarkers. IDATA data and/or biospecimens are available as public use data, but researchers must submit a project proposal, which are reviewed by NCI.

Observing Protein and Energy Nutrition (OPEN) Study

The OPEN Study was an NCI-sponsored study designed to assess dietary measurement error by comparing results from self-reported dietary intake data with four dietary biomarkers: doubly labeled water and urinary nitrogen, sodium, and potassium. The study was conducted from July 1999 to March 2000 and included 484 men and women, aged 40-69 years old, living in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Last Updated: 10 Dec, 2020