Developing a computer-assisted personal interviewing tool for food and nutrition surveys based on the food frequency questionnaire in Iran

Development of instruments to measure habitual dietary intake in large epidemiological studies has been investigated extensively. The purpose of this study was to develop a computer-assisted personal interview system (CAPI) system for conducting dietary assessment. A 168-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), originally developed for the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study, is used widely in food and nutrition studies in Iran. In addition to measurement errors at data recording and entry levels, the printed form is time-consuming and costly, both financially and environmentally. This technical report introduces a computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) program to collect food and nutrition data using the Iranian 168-item FFQ. The U.S. Census Bureau’s CSPro software was used to construct the CAPI application. The application runs on Android devices and computers with Microsoft Windows operating systems. The language of the CAPI is Farsi. This easy-to-use CAPI tool attempts to reduce time, cost, and human error in nationwide and local nutrition research.