Development and Validation of a New Food Frequency Questionnaire for Estimating the Consumption Frequency of Turmeric for Risk Assessment of Curcumin Exposure in Adults
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Abstract
Curcumin is the primary type of curcuminoids, which are the bioactive compounds in turmeric (Curcuma longa L.). There are multiple edible sources of curcumin, including turmeric-containing herbal medicines, dietary supplements, and culinary preparations. However, the total long-term continuous exposure to curcumin from all these sources and its safety profile had not yet been established, and no appropriate tool for measuring such exposure was available. This study aims to develop and validate a new online questionnaire to estimate curcumin exposure from edible sources. A new online questionnaire was developed. It includes questions about the source of consumed products, dosage, and frequency of turmeric product consumption (10 popular herbal medicines and dietary supplement products based on 4 websites), and turmeric food consumption (11 turmeric-based dishes from 8 websites such as satay, Southern-style sour soup, and chicken biryani). The amount of curcumin in products and food was estimated based on the curcuminoid content specified on the product label and the amount of turmeric in the recipe. Seven experts validated the content of the questionnaire. Test-retest reliability of the questionnaire was assessed in 33 users of turmeric products. The developed questionnaire achieved a content validation index of 1. The test-retest reliability had correlation coefficients of 0.997, 0.869, and 0.918 for the turmeric product consumption, turmeric food consumption, and source of product sections of the questionnaire, respectively. This validated questionnaire can be further used to assess the curcumin exposure and risk assessment among Thai consumers of turmeric-containing products in future studies.
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