Methodology

The sampling frame is the National Health System Registers and the target population is the population living in Portugal aged between 3 months and 84 years old.

The population older than 64 years old will be assessed together with the PEN-3S project, a research project that aims to evaluated the nutritional status of the elderly.

A multistage sampling is performed according to the following steps:

a) Stratification by 7 NUTS II (North, Centre, Lisbon , Alentejo, Algarve, Azores and Madeira);
b) Random selection of Health Units of Primary Care at each region;
c) Random selection of individuals registered in each Health Unit, according to gender and age groups.

The field work will take place in every season of the year, through face- to -face and computer-assisted interviews. An electronic platform for computer-assisted data collection was created (You eAT&MOVE), which includes all examination areas. The YOU module includes sociodemographic, anthropometrics and food insecurity questionnaires. The eAT module allow to perform 24h recalls and to handle with food diaries using different methods of portions quantification (eg. photographic series and household portion sizes) synchronized with the nutritional composition data of foods and recipes. The MOVE module includes the questionnaires and diaries of physical activity.

It includes the following areas of evaluation:

1) Food and nutritional consumption (food diary and food frequency questionnaire);
2) Habits and eating behaviors;
3) Salt intake (for a subsample);
4) Food and nutritional supplements;
5) Food insecurity;
6) Physical activity habits and behaviors;
7) Sociodemographics;
8) General health information;
9) Anthropometrics.