Pergamon SSDI 0306~4603(95)00056-9 BRIEF REPORT BRIEF ASSESSMENTS OF DIETARY BEHAVIOR IN FIELD SETTINGS RUSSELL E. GLASGOW Oregon Research Institute. Eugene. OR JODIE DONNELLY PERRY Nutrition A\sociatea. Eugene. OR DEBORAH J. TOOBERT Oregon Research Institute JACK F. HOLLIS Kaiser Permanente. Center for Health Ke\carch. Pot-tland. OR Abstract - Our research team is involved in ongoing research in both uork\ites and medical office settings. These settings offer great potential for reaching individuals who would not otherwise participate in health promotion. but they al\o place considerable constraint\ on assessment time and efforts. especially if one’s zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQ goal t\ to attract ;I high and rcpt-e\entative proportion of employees or patient\. Thi? paper repel-ts on our experience wtth measure\ of dietary behavior in these two 5ettings. We found it problematic IO collect detailed az\eb\- ments such as 4-day food record5 or comprehensive food ft-equenc);hi~tol-_4 checkli\t\ in worksites or medical office settings using population-ba\ed aample\ Instead. we recommend and provide data on the utility of a dietary-fat screening in\trumcnt. and on the Food Habit\ Questionnaire (FHQ-Kristal. Shattuck. & Henry. 1990). a brief me.l\ure ofdietary behaviot-\ associated with high-fat eating patterns. The FHQ. in particulat-. M,~S found to correlate MelI with other more costly and time-consuming method\ of a\se\\ment. to be reliable and responsive to interventton effect\. and to provide behavioral target\ for intervention. The strengths and limitations of these measure\ for tailoring intervention and aa\e\\inp outcome\ are dlscu\sed. As health promotion and public health researchers conduct more research in naturalis-. tic field settings, there are additional constraints on assessment procedures. This i\ particularly true if one is attempting to conduct population-based research in which one’s sample is representative of a defined population. such a\ employee5 in ;L worksite, patients in a medical clinic or hospital. or members of a community (Jeffcry. 1989; McLeroy, Bibeau, Steckler. & Glanz. 1988). To attract members of the popula.- tion who are in earlier stages of change (Prochaska. 1994) and who often have a small amount of time to devote to assessment due tojob demands. scheduling constraints or lack of interest. it is imperative to keep assessments verb brief. This is especially challenging in an area such as nutrition, which is enormously complex. Given the complexity of dietary patterns, dietary researchers have dcvcl- oped three basic approaches to assess nutritional intake. u hich are considered state- l-hi\ research was supported by two NIH grants: DK35524 and HL4554X. The author9 thank Alan Krystal for his thoughtful comments on an exlier vetCon of thiz article. Requests for reprints should be sent to Russell E. Glasgow. Ph.D.. Oregon Research Institute. 1715 Franklin Blvd.. Eugene. OR 97403.