The validity of a food frequency questionnaire as a measure of PUFA status in pregnancy

Table 2 Mean erythrocyte and mean FFQ estimate of differing PUFAs and levels of agreement between each estmate

PUFA	Erythrocyte^†(Median/Range)	FFQ (Median/Range) intake (g/d)	Spearman correlation coefficent
ALA	0.17 (0.3)	0.02 (0.6)	−0.02
EPA	0.46 (3.8)	0.06 (3.8)	0.55*
DPA	2.27 (3.7)	0.01 (0.2)	0.14*
DHA	6.05 (8.3)	0.15 (1.9)	0.61*
Total Omega-3	9.02 (15.4)	1.66 (12.9)	0.14*
Total Omega-6	27.13 (14.8)	10.52 (82.85)	0.02

*Significant at 0.01.
^†All fatty acid values are expressed as the percentage of total fatty acids in erythrocyte phospholipids.
Acronyms: PUFA- polyunsaturated fatty acids; FFQ- food frequency questionnaire; ALA- alpha-linolenic acide; EPA- eicosapentataenoic acid; DPA- docosapentaenic acid; DHA- docosahexaenoic acid.