Background: The Tohoku Medical Megabank Project (TMM) was established to realize personalized healthcare and medicine using genomic and omics data. This study evaluated the validity and reproducibility of food group intakes derived from a self-administered food frequency questionnaire (TMM-FFQ) that included the response option “constitutionally unable to eat/drink it” among community-dwelling Japanese adults.Methods: Participants comprised 89 men and 124 women aged ≥20 years from Miyagi Prefecture. Participants completed weighed food records (WFRs) for 3 consecutive days per season as reference intake and FFQs in 2019 (FFQ1) and 2021 (FFQ3). Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients (CCs) were calculated for correlations between food group intakes estimated from the 12-day WFR and FFQ3 (validity), and for correlations between those estimated from the FFQ1 and FFQ3 (reproducibility). Cross-classification according to quintiles using FFQ and WFR data was also performed.Results: The percentage of participants who chose the “constitutionally unable to eat/drink it” option was non-negligible for some food groups. In the validity analysis, CCs were >0.40 for many food groups; the median across 21 food groups was 0.49 in men and 0.45 in women. The median percentages of cross-classification into exact plus adjacent quintiles were 73.0% in men and 66.9% in women. In the reproducibility analysis, CCs were >0.50 for many food groups; the median across 21 food groups was 0.60 in men and 0.51 in women.Conclusions: The validity of the TMM-FFQ compared with 12-day WFR and the reproducibility of the TMM-FFQ were reasonable for food groups in the TMM cohort studies.

Background: Acrylamide (AA) is classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans (class 2A)” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. AA causes cancer owing to its mutagenic and genotoxic metabolite, glycidamide (GA), and its effects on sex hormones. Both AA and GA can interact with hemoglobin to hemoglobin adducts (HbAA and HbGA, respectively), which are considered appropriate biomarkers of internal exposure of AA. However, few epidemiologic studies reported an association of HbAA and HbGA with breast cancer. Methods: We conducted a nested case–control study within the Japan Public Health Center–based Prospective Study cohort (125 cases and 250 controls). Cases and controls were categorized into tertiles (lowest, middle, and highest) using the distribution of HbAA or HbGA levels in the control group and estimated ORs and 95% confidence intervals (CI) using conditional logistic regression, adjusting for potential confounders. Results: No association was observed between HbAA (ORHighestvs.Lowest, 1.34; 95% CI, 0.69–2.59), HbGA (ORHighest vs. Lowest, 1.46; 95% CI, 0.79–2.69), their sum HbAA+HbGA (ORHighest vs. Lowest, 1.36; 95% CI, 0.72–2.58) and breast cancer; however, some evidence of positive association was observed between their ratio, HbGA/HbAA, and breast cancer (ORHighest vs. Lowest, 2.19; 95% CI, 1.11–4.31). Conclusions: There was no association between biomarkers of AA and breast cancer. Impact: It is unlikely that AA increases breast cancer risk; however, the association of AA with breast cancer may need to be evaluated, with a focus not only on the absolute amount of HbAA or HbGA but also on HbGA/HbAA and the activity of metabolic genes.

Recently, web-based dietary assessment tools for the targeted population have been developed and used to estimate the dietary intake level in several epidemiological studies. This study aimed to examine the validity of estimating energy and nutrient intake by the web-based 24 h dietary recall (Web24HR), which we developed for the Japanese population. Overall, 228 adults aged ≥20 years who agreed to participate were included. Web24HR was administered three times per person: twice within 3 weeks and once 3 months later. The data on 3-day weighed food records (WFR) at 3-month intervals in the four seasons were collected using the reference method. The intake of energy and nutrients between Web24HR and WFR were compared using Pearson’s correlation coefficients and the Bland–Altman analysis. As results, the correlations were moderate for both men (median r = 0.51) and women (median r = 0.38) except for iodine, retinol, retinol equivalents, and β-tocopherol. The Bland–Altman method revealed that the bias in intake was within ±10% for most nutrients, except for cholesterol, iodine, vitamin C, and the water content, in both sexes. Additionally, monounsaturated fatty acids in men and β-cryptoxanthin in women exhibited an underestimation of more than 10%. In conclusion, the Web24HR intake assessment showed moderate correlations for most nutrients in both sexes. The bias in intake was within ±10% for most nutrients, but there were discrepancies for some nutrients. This tool’s performance is comparable to Japan’s standard dietary exposure assessment methods and will be helpful for future applications in epidemiological studies, though caution is needed for certain nutrient assessments.

Salt intake reduction is crucial to prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs) globally. This study aimed to investigate the short- and long-term effects of monitoring salt concentration in homemade dishes on reducing salt intake in a Japanese population. A double-blind randomized controlled trial using a 2 × 2 factorial design with two interventions was conducted in 195 participants; they were assigned to both interventions for a group monitoring salt concentration in soups (control: no monitoring) and a group using low-sodium seasoning (control: regular seasoning). We evaluated 24-hour urinary sodium excretions at baseline and after a three-month intervention for the changes as major outcomes, at six- and twelve-months after baseline as long-term follow-up surveys. Urinary sodium excretion decreased in both intervention and control groups after the intervention. However, differences in the change for both monitoring and low-sodium seasoning interventions were statistically non-significant (p = 0.29 and 0.52, respectively). Urinary sodium excretion returned to the baseline level after twelve-months for all groups. Monitoring of salt concentration is ineffective in reducing salt intake for short- and long-term among the people studied in this cohort.

Background: The Tohoku Medical Megabank Project has initiated the Birth and Three-Generation Cohort Study (TMM BirThree Cohort Study) including genomic and omics investigations, and conducted a self-administered food frequency questionnaire with the response option “constitutionally unable to eat or drink it” for individual food items (TMM-FFQ) for pregnant women. This study evaluated the validity of the TMM-FFQ among pregnant women.Methods: Participants comprised 122 pregnant women aged ≥20 years residing in Miyagi Prefecture who completed weighed food records (WFRs) for 3 days as reference intake and the TMM-FFQ during mid-pregnancy. Correlations between nutrient or food group intakes based on the WFR and the TMM-FFQ were calculated using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients (CCs), adjusting for energy intake and correcting for random within-individual variation of WFR. Cross-classification was also conducted according to quintiles using the WFR and TMM-FFQ data.Results: The percentages of participants who chose the “constitutionally unable to eat or drink it” option were >3% for seven food and drink items. CCs were >0.30 for 31 nutrients; the median across energy and 44 nutrients was 0.41. CCs were >0.30 for 14 food groups; the median across 20 food groups was 0.35. The median percentages of cross-classification into exact plus adjacent quintiles and extreme quintiles were 63.1% and 3.3% for energy and nutrients and 61.9% and 4.1% for food groups, respectively.Conclusions: The validity of the TMM-FFQ compared with the WFR was reasonable for certain nutrients and food groups among pregnant women in the TMM BirThree Cohort Study.

Background: One of the factors for not achieving a reduced salt diet may be the difficulties in screening individuals according to their quantitative salt consumption. Accordingly, we examined the performance of the simplified salt check sheet (13 items) as a quantitative tool for screening excessive salt intake by comparing with the salt intake amount measured by 24-hour urinary sodium (salt equivalent g/day) excretion.Methods: One hundred fifty-four participants (57 males and 97 females) from Kanagawa, Tokyo, and Nara prefectures in Japan were included. In this study, which the design is a cross-sectional validation study, the salt intake amount was used as a diagnostic criterion, and corresponding receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were prepared based on the sensitivity and specificity of each score of the salt check sheet.Results: The average salt intake were 13.5 and 10.2 g/day for males and females, respectively. When using the total score, among males, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was moderate (0.702 [95% CI, 0.543-0.862]), confirming its value as a diagnostic tool for salt intake of ≥10 g/day. In females, the AUCs were low for any criteria. When score calculation item was limited to three that contributed to the higher salt intake in this population, the AUC for ≥10 g salt/day was moderate (0.700 [95% CI, 0.595-0.805]).Conclusions: The salt check sheet was found to be useful in screening for excessive salt intake only in males. For females, it was suggested that it could be used only when three specific items are used.