Rachael Thurecht

Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) face a growing burden of malnutrition and diet-related noncommunicable diseases. Yet, nutrient intake among Pacific populations remains unclear. This scoping review explores the available literature of macro- and micronutrient intakes among PICTs. Scholarly database searches and targeted web searches were conducted to capture sources reporting nutrient intake from 16 PICTs. Screening and data extraction were conducted by two independent reviewers, with results analyzed descriptively. Fifty-one sources were included in the review. Papua New Guinea and Samoa were the most represented PICTs, while no relevant data from Nauru, Niue, and Tuvalu was identified. Dietary intake of infants and children was examined in 27% of sources, whereas women were the focus of investigation in only seven studies (13.7%). Common dietary assessment methods utilized were food frequency questionnaires, 24-h recall surveys, and food records. Micronutrient intake was disproportionately reported in the literature compared with macronutrients (captured in 30% and 90% of sources, respectively). Our review highlights the scarcity of research on nutrient intake among PICTs, especially within nutritionally vulnerable groups—women and children. While nutrition research in the Pacific is increasing, alongside greater use of the Pacific Nutrient Database (PNDB) supporting analysis of region-specific foods, the PNDB lacks nutrient composition data for key micronutrients (folate, iodine, and vitamin D), which were consequently the least-reported nutrients in the literature. Expanding dietary intake research in the Pacific, particularly among under-represented groups, women and children, is essential to identify nutritional gaps and inform evidence-based nutrition policies and interventions.

Background: Poor nutrition in childhood can have irreversible impacts on development and health, potentially resulting in cognitive impairments and an increased risk of chronic disease later in life. Aim: This study aimed to develop and validate the Parent Carer-Food Choice Questionnaire (PC-FCQ) to determine the key factors influencing the parental food choices of children aged between two and five years. Methods: A sample of 737 Australian parents and carers completed the questionnaire consisting of 98 items on a 10-point frequency of influence anchored at 1 never to 10 always. Principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to identify the key factors and refine the questionnaire. Results: The PCA extracted 65 items organized into 12 factors explaining 62.8% of the total variance. The factors were named ethical concerns, nutritional attributes, child preferences, child mood, awareness, parent sensory, convenience, situation, culture, professional advice, accessibility and weight control. The final Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure was 0.93, and the Bartlett test of sphericity was statistically significant X2(4753) = 39,643.87, p < 0.001. Moderate intercorrelations were detected between seven factors. Conclusions: This research resulted in a PC-FCQ that includes factors specifically relevant to parental food choice. The PC-FCQ will enable researchers and clinicians to more effectively provide nutrition education and dietary interventions to suit the parent and child. The next phase of this research will be to test the accuracy and reliability of the PC-FCQ in an independent sample via confirmatory factor analysis.

Purpose: The Athlete Food Choice Questionnaire (AFCQ) is a novel tool for understanding factors influencing athlete food selection and providing context to nutrition knowledge and diet quality data. Reliability, face, and content validity have been previously established during development. The aim of this study is to evaluate the AFCQ's factorial structure, reliability, and construct validity in an independent sample of international high-performance athletes.
Methods: The AFCQ contains 36 items within nine factors. Participants rate how frequently (1 never to 5 always) items influence their choices. Model consistency and construct validity was evaluated by confirmatory factor analysis. Measures included model fit incidences and duplicate methods examining reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity.
Results: Athletes (n = 232) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast, Australia, completed the AFCQ. A modified 32-item model achieved discriminant validity for all factors and convergent validity for "emotional influence," "food and health awareness," "nutritional attributes of food," "performance," and "influence of others." Reliability measures of all constructs except "usual eating practice" and "food values and beliefs" were above acceptable thresholds, although "usual eating practice" was considered tolerable and conditionally accepted.
Conclusion: The AFCQ was confirmed in its original nine-factor structure in an independent sample of high-performance athletes. This provides a detailed and transparent account of the construct validity of the AFCQ, adding to the foundation of evidence for this new instrument. The AFCQ captures the unique influences specific to athletes while being broad enough for application across diverse sporting and culturally mixed cohorts. This tool could assist sports science professionals in making more informed and effective decisions around strategies to support athletes, including the ability to triage for specific sports nutrition advice.

This study aimed to develop and refine an Athlete Food Choice Questionnaire (AFCQ) to determine the key factors influencing food choice in an international cohort of athletes. A questionnaire that contained 84 items on a 5-point frequency scale was developed for this study. Athletes at the 2017 Universiade in Taiwan were invited to participate. Principal component analysis (PCA) was utilised to identify key factors and refine the questionnaire. Completed questionnaires were received from 156 athletes from 31 countries and 17 sports. The PCA extracted 36 items organised into nine factors explaining 68.0% of variation. The nine factors were: 'nutritional attributes of the food', 'emotional influences', 'food and health awareness', 'influence of others', 'usual eating practices', 'weight control', 'food values and beliefs', 'sensory appeal' and 'performance'. The overall Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin was 0.75, Bartlett test of sphericity was statistically significant (X2 (666) =2536.50, p< 0.001) and all communalities remained >0.5. Intercorrelations were detected between 'performance' and both 'nutritional attributes of the food' and 'weight control'. Price of food, convenience and situational influences did not form part of the factorial structure. This research resulted in an AFCQ that includes factors specific to athletic performance and the sporting environment. The AFCQ will enable researchers and sports dietitians to better tailor nutrition education and dietary interventions to suit the individual or team. The next phase will test the accuracy and reliability of the AFCQ both during and outside of competition. The AFCQ is a useful tool to assist with management of performance nutrition for athletes