Comparison of historical approaches to evaluating population concordance with the 1997 WCRF/AICR cancer prevention guidelines: toward a rationalization and synthesis

In 1997, the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute of Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR) published cancer prevention guidelines, comprising 15 levels of recommendations related to diet and lifestyle practices. There has been interest in using archival or prospective survey information to assess concordance with these suggested practices. Experience has been reported so far for a FFQ in Guatemala (Valdés-Ramos et al, 2005), a FFQ in Iowa, USA (Cerhan et al, 2004), and a prospectively-designed instrument in Scotland and the Netherlands (Vossenaar thesis, 2004). The Iowa and Guatemala studies tended to focus on broad, primary behaviors, whereas the 2-nation analysis endeavored to rate secondary goals as well. A further, detailed parsing of the WCRF/AICR guidelines provides insights toward a consistent and consensus format by which to assess concordance of population-based eating and food preparation data.