MRC Epidemiology UnitAdvancing and undertaking the measurement of diet in different populations and study settings
Team lead and contact
Polly Page, Programme Director Measurement and Surveys, and Dietary Assessment Lead. Polly.Page@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk
About the team
Our team has extensive expertise in dietary assessment, formed by consolidating capabilities from across the MRC Epidemiology Unit, the EPIC-Norfolk study and the former MRC Elsie Widdowson Laboratory.
We lead on the measurement of diet for the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey Rolling Programme (NDNS RP) and Intake24. We support dietary assessment in local, UK and international studies through research collaboration and service-based support.
Our objectives are to:
- Adapt, update, develop and maintain dietary assessment instruments for application, ensuring methods are fit-for-purpose
- Evaluate and validate application and method development
- Facilitate independent access to methodologies, instruments and resources by ensuring comprehensive documentation, guidance and toolkits are available; and by provisioning access to standardised instruments and resources for research, clinical and education purposes.
Our expertise and services
If you are interested in working with us, please contact: dietaryassessmentenquiry@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk
We provide:
- Access to dietary assessment tools
- Intake24
- DINO: Diet In Nutrients Out
- DINO Gambia
- FFQ (Food Frequency Questionnaire) download and data entry
- FETA (FFQ EPIC Tool for Analysis)
- Diet, Anthropometry and Physical Activity (DAPA) Measurement Toolkit – www.measurement-toolkit.org
- Input into novel or innovative approaches in dietary assessment with a specific focus on development of Intake24 including application in new populations and settings
- Advice on the appropriate use and access to food composition data, alongside maintaining, updating and developing new approaches to managing food composition, including deriving new dietary variables for use in research.
Our team maintains and updates the UK Nutrient Databank in conjunction with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) / Food Standards Agency (FSA) - Input into study protocols, guidance on the use of appropriate dietary assessment tools and methods for different populations and study settings and best practice in dietary data collection, training and quality assurance (QA)
- Services across the dietary data life-cycle: data collection, diet record and recall coding, processing, dietary data analysis and interpretation.
Team members
Suzanna Abraham
Birdem Amoutzopoulos
David Collins
Anila Farooq
Jackie Foreman
Rachael Mack
Angela Mulligan
Polly Page
Caireen Roberts
Toni Steer
Previous team members
Rachel Barratt
Sarah Elsey
Anna Harvey
Catherine Hume
Kirsty Trigg
Useful links to dietary assessment resources
Publications
See recent Dietary Assessment team publications on the MRC Epidemiology Unit online publications database.