Diet History Questionnaire II (DHQ II): Diet*Calc Software

Alternate Version Available

You are viewing the web site for DHQ II. The latest version for the U.S. is the DHQ III; however, DHQ III does not yet have a Canadian version. The Canadian version of DHQ II is still available.

Diet*Calc is PC software that can be used to analyze Diet History Questionnaire II (DHQ) and Canadian DHQ II data (see Steps for Using the DHQ). Diet*Calc generates nutrient and food group intake estimates for the standard versions of the DHQ II distributed by the NCI, as well as modified versions of the DHQ. The software consists of three main components:

1. The Diet*Calc Analysis generates nutrient estimates based on the food frequency data collected on the DHQ forms. The DHQ data must be coded and stored in an ASCII text file. Typically, this text file is created by scanning paper forms, but other methods can be used (see Questionnaire Forms).
2. The Data Dictionary Editor is accessed through the Edit menu of the Diet*Calc Analysis program. Diet*Calc interprets DHQ data files using information stored in Questionnaire Data Dictionary files (*.qdd). These dictionary files contain the column locations and coding information for the variables in a questionnaire data file. You must edit the data dictionary when analyzing a modified version of the DHQ.
3. The Database Utility, a separate program installed with the Diet*Calc software, allows you to import nutrient data into the Diet*Calc food database. The Database Utility converts nutrient values expressed as nutrient per 100 grams into the nutrient per serving size format required by Diet*Calc.

Download the Diet*Calc software

• Download the DHQ II Diet*Calc installation program
• Download the Canadian DHQ II Diet*Calc installation program

Diet*Calc version 1.5.0 was released in October 2012 for the U.S. versions, and April 2014 for the Canadian versions. A revision history describing changes made for this release is provided in readme.txt [TXT - 9 KB].

Database Utility Program

If you need to modify the standard nutrient database, a single nutrient value must be provided by gender and portion size. If you have modified the database to have fewer or greater demographic groups, nutrient values must be included for each group. For most users, creating nutrient values using the method described in Development of the DHQ II Nutrient & Food Group Database may not be possible. Therefore, the database for the DHQ provides a mean gram weight for each database food. This can be used in conjunction with a conventional nutrient value of units/100g to create new values to be modified or added to the DHQ.

The Database Utility, a separate program installed with Diet*Calc, allows you to import nutrient data into the Diet*Calc food database. The utility converts nutrient values expressed as nutrient per 100 grams into the nutrient per serving size format required by Diet*Calc. Once you download and install the Diet*Calc software, you can access both the Diet*Calc analysis and utility programs through the Windows Start menu.