Validating a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire to assess regional diet in a study of cancer in South West Nigeria.

PURPOSE: Cancer burden is rising rapidly in Nigeria, the most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa; this trend may in part be attributable to diet. We developed and validated a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess regional diet in Nigeria. METHODS: We recruited 68 adult participants from rural and urban settings in South West Nigeria. We developed an FFQ administered at baseline and assessed its validity using 3 dietary recalls (baseline, 7 days post baseline, 3 months post baseline). We calculated Spearman's rank correlation coefficients and energy-adjusted de-attenuated correlation coefficients for food items and macronutrients. We evaluated cross-classification using quartiles of macronutrient intake. RESULTS: Energy-adjusted de-attenuated food item correlations between the FFQ and dietary recalls ranged from -0.08 (smoked beef/goat) to 0.73 (fried snacks) for the average intake from the first 2 recalls (2DR) and from -0.05 (smoked beef/goat) to 0.75 (smoked fish) for the average of all 3 recalls (3DR). Macronutrient correlations ranged from 0.15 (fat) to 0.37 (fiber) for the 2DR and from 0.08 (fat) to 0.41 (carbohydrates) for the 3DR. The percent of participants classified in the same quartile ranged from 16.4% (fat) to 32.8% (fiber, protein) for the 2DR and from 25.6% (fat) to 34.9% (carbohydrates) for the 3DR. Agreement improved when including adjacent quartiles, from 65.5% (carbohydrates) to 70.5% (fat, fiber) for the 2DR and from 62.8% (protein) to 76.8% (carbohydrate) for the 3DR. CONCLUSION: Our semi-quantitative FFQ was reasonably valid for ranking intake of certain foods and macronutrients in adults in South West Nigeria.

A 5-year review of research ethics applications in a tertiary health and educational institution in Nigeria.

Background: African contribution to global research output is said to be low. Poor funding and poor skills in grant writing have been suggested as important factors for this situation. Objectives: Applications for research ethics clearance in a hospital were reviewed to have an overview of the planned studies and the proportion of them that attracted national and international funding. Methods: A review of all applications for ethical clearance received by the institutional review board of a university teaching hospital at Ile-Ife, Nigeria, from 2016 to 2020. They were analysed according to study nature, scope, purpose, and sponsorship using descriptive statistics presented as frequency tables and charts. Results: A total of 878 applications were reviewed. There were 803 (91.5%) applications for local, 45 (5.1%) for national multicentre, and 30 (3.4%) for international multicentre studies. Applications for medical fellowship were 352 (40.0%) while 208 (23.8%) were from academic staff for non-degree research. There were 610 (69.5%) applications for self-sponsored studies. Only 18 (2.0%) and 26 (3.0%) received sponsorship from national and international donor agencies, respectively. Conclusions: Local studies formed the bulk of the submissions for ethics clearance. National and international donor funding of research is abysmally low in this Nigerian tertiary institution studied.