NutricheQ Questionnaire assesses the risk of dietary imbalances in toddlers from 1 through 3 years of age

Background: Although a nutrient-poor diet may affect children's growth, especially early in life, few tools to assess dietary imbalances in 1- to 3-year-old children have been developed. Objectives: To investigate the accuracy and test-retest reliability of the NutricheQ Questionnaire in the identification of toddlers with the risk of inadequate intake of micro- and macronutrients in a sample of Italian toddlers. Design: A 3-day weighed food record was performed, and results were compared with outcomes of the NutricheQ Questionnaire in 201 toddlers (training set: 1-3 years old). The accuracy of NutricheQ in the identification of categories of nutritional risk was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Test-retest of the tool was estimated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and the Cronbach's alpha statistic, in a validation set of 50 toddlers. Results: The NutricheQ Questionnaire is a valid tool for the identification of toddlers at risk for dietary imbalances. Significant differences in nutrient intake (p