A food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) is a common method used to assess individual long-term dietary intake of foods and nutrients. The questionnaires elicit a subjectively reported “usual frequency” of consuming an item from a list of foods A food frequency and preference questionnaire (FFPQ) is needed to facilitate studies assessing the dietary patterns of ischemic stroke patients.

Objectives: This study aimed to develop and validate a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess assess the premorbid dietary habits of ischemic stroke patients.

Methods: A total of 20 Ishemic patients participated in the development of the FFQ and in the validation study, 100 subjects participating in the reproducibility study. The FFQ, consisting of 127 food items from 12 food groups, was compared with a one-day dietary record (3DR) as the reference method. The reproducibility of the FFQ was assessed through repeat administration for three times. Reliability of the scale measured by split half method, the whole test was calculated by using Spearman-Brown formula). The validity of the FF Scale was established through internal consistency analysis method,. For this purpose two sets of inter correlation were calculated. The score of items in each section were correlated with section total. In the second section, each section total was correlated with grand total score. During validity readability, feasibility, clarity of wordings, layout and style were accessed.

Results: Guttman split half coefficient of the scale was 0.321. Therefore, the reliability score is high and this developed FF scale has high reliability. The score of items in each section was correlated with the section total and the pearson correlation coefficient ranged from 0.445 to 0.533. The values ranged between 0.001 and 0.901 most of the correlations were found to be significant, thereby indicating reasonably high construct validity. The results of the validation study demonstrated good acceptance of the FFQ

Conclusion: These findings indicate that the developed FFQ is valid and reliable for measuring the average intake of food consumption in a population of ischemic patients.