The Nutrition
Support Shared Resource provides dietary assessment information that will
support diet-related cancer research studies. The staff of the resource
perform several services:
Maintain
a food composition table with information on up to 174 nutrients
and food components for over 2300 foods.
Maintain
a supplement composition table for up to 217 nutrients and food
components in over 3300 dietary supplements.
Develop
quantitative scannable food frequency questionnaires for use
in epidemiologic studies and provide the nutrient composition
data needed for the analysis of questionnaire responses.
Review
the accuracy of food records, dietary recalls, and dietary supplement
questionnaires, and assist with data entry procedures.
Provide
training for project staff in appropriate dietary data collection
methods.
Assist
with the design, analysis, and interpretation of dietary data
for studies of diet and cancer.
The composition
databases, as well as the questionnaires, are customized to the multiethnic
population of Hawaii, and have also been validated for use with other
ethnic groups in Los Angeles and the Pacific Islands. Thus, the resource
provides tools for investigators that are not available elsewhere.
The availability of a centralized resource also increases the quality
of the dietary analyses, allows CRCH members to realize cost savings,
and promotes inter-programmatic and inter-institutional collaboration.
The staff
for the resource includes three nutritionists, a programmer, and
a student assistant. Funding is provided by a Cancer Center Support
Grant supplemented by charge-back fees for services performed. Many
of the services are also available to users outside the CRCH for
a fee. For example, we provide our standard 18-page food frequency
questionnaires to researchers from other institutions for a total
fee of $11 each (including printing, scanning, and nutrient/food
group intake analyses).