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DHQ III Demonstration Site
Complete a FFQ on the DHQ III demonstration website to become familiar with the questionnaire.
Go to Demo Site
The Diet History Questionnaire (DHQ) is a freely available food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for use with adults 19 or more years of age. The most recent version, DHQ III, can be used by researchers, clinicians, or educators to assess food and dietary supplement intakes.
The nutrient and food group database [CSV - 2.30 MB] for DHQ III is based on a compilation of national 24-hour dietary recall data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) conducted in 2007-08, 2009-10, 2011-12, and 2013-14 among those 19 years or older. Use in younger age groups is not appropriate given that the food list and portions are based on adult data.
DHQ III is available as a web-based tool only. Paper and pencil administration is not supported. There are four DHQ III questionnaires available in both English and Spanish, that vary by time frame and inclusion of portion size questions. To learn more about the foods and beverages included in DHQ III, or to preview each version of the survey, click on the links below.
- Past year with portion size [PDF - 1.82 MB]
- Past year without portion size [PDF - 1.70 MB]
- Past month with portion size [PDF - 1.75 MB]
- Past month without portion size [PDF - 1.62 MB]
DHQ III consists of 135 food and beverage line items and 26 dietary supplement questions. Some line items for foods and beverages have additional embedded questions that allow for final assignment to items in the nutrient and food group database leading to 263 foods/beverages listed in the database. For example, a single line item asks frequency of intake and portion size of soda or soft drinks. Embedded underneath are questions regarding whether the soft drinks consumed are regular vs. diet or caffeinated vs. decaffeinated. Answers to these questions lead to assignment of one of four food codes in the database: diet soda with caffeine, diet soda without caffeine, regular soda with caffeine or regular soda without caffeine.
There have been two prior versions of DHQ, the original and DHQ II. There were Canadian and U.S. versions of the DHQ II, but the most recent iteration, DHQ III, does not yet have a Canadian version. DHQ II-Canada is still available for use.
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