抄録
The defined portion size used for foods in a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (SQFFQ) survey would greatly affect the accuracy of estimating the actual intake of nutrients. The same portion size has so far been employed for both the elderly and for the general adult population. However, the portion size for the elderly is considered not always to be the same as that for the general adult population. In order to improve the accuracy of calculating the nutrient intake by the elderly in SQFFQ surveys, we investigated the ideal portion size of 84 food items for healthy elderly volunteers (23 men and 26 women) living in rural areas of Okayama Prefecture by showing them fresh samples of each food item during a 1-hour interviewer-administered survey. The portion sizes for 9 food items were within±20% of the average portion size with over 70% of the subjects, and for 45 food items with over 50% of the subjects. We found differences in portion size for rice, white bread, noodles, meat, fish, egg and other foods between the average adult and the interviewed elderly; there was a tendency toward larger portion sizes for milk, potatoes and tofu that are popularly consumed by the elderly.
