NS310 Unit 8 Calcium Questionnaire Example

Course	NS310 Nutritional Assessment
Unit	Unit 8
Paper type	Food frequency questionnaire
Length	About 950 words, 6 pages double-spaced
Format	APA 7 student paper
School	Purdue University Global
Program	BS in Nutrition Science
Updated	October 2026

Free sample paper for NS310 Unit 8

Twenty Foods and Nine Frequencies: A Unit 8 Calcium Food Frequency Questionnaire for Adults Aged 50 to 70, With Scoring Key and One Pilot

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

NS310: Nutritional Assessment

Unit 8 Food Frequency Questionnaire

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The pilot respondent and her answers are composite; the dietary reference intake report and the questionnaire validation and measurement error studies cited are real.

What this part is doingListing the instrument's parts in the lead shows the set is built in the order a questionnaire is used.

Instructions to the Respondent

Think about the past month. For each food, mark how often you usually ate it, then mark whether your usual portion was small, medium or large compared with the medium portion shown. If you never ate a food, mark "never" and go on. Count foods eaten on their own and as part of other dishes, such as milk in coffee or cheese in a sandwich.

The Food List

The twenty foods are grouped so respondents think about similar foods together.

1. Dairy: milk to drink or on cereal (medium 1 cup); milk in coffee or tea (medium 2 tablespoons); yogurt (medium 6 ounces); hard cheese such as cheddar (medium 1 ounce); cottage cheese (medium half cup); ice cream or frozen yogurt (medium half cup).

2. Fortified alternatives: soy milk, almond milk or oat milk with added calcium (medium 1 cup); orange juice with added calcium (medium 1 cup); breakfast cereal with added calcium (medium 1 cup).

3. Fish and soy: canned salmon or sardines with bones (medium 3 ounces); tofu made with calcium sulfate (medium half cup); other tofu (medium half cup).

4. Greens: cooked collard, turnip or mustard greens (medium half cup); cooked kale or bok choy (medium half cup); broccoli (medium half cup).

5. Mixed dishes: pizza (medium 1 slice); macaroni and cheese (medium 1 cup); lasagna or other baked pasta with cheese (medium 1 cup); a sandwich or burger with cheese (medium 1); a burrito or quesadilla with cheese (medium 1).

Calcium-set tofu is listed apart from other tofu because the setting agent changes its calcium content several fold, and a single tofu row would blur the difference.

Frequency Choices

Nine boxes run across each row: never or less than once a month; 1 to 3 times a month; once a week; 2 to 4 times a week; 5 to 6 times a week; once a day; 2 to 3 times a day; 4 to 5 times a day; 6 or more times a day. These follow the pattern of established questionnaires so that responses map onto published conversion factors.

Scoring Key

Each frequency converts to times per day: 0, 0.07, 0.14, 0.43, 0.79, 1, 2.5, 4.5 and 6. Portions convert to multipliers: small 0.5, medium 1 and large 1.5. Each row's calcium equals times per day, times the portion multiplier, times the medium portion's calcium from USDA FoodData Central. Rows are summed.

Worked row: milk to drink or on cereal, once a day, medium. One cup of 1 percent milk contains about 305 mg calcium. 1 times 1 times 305 equals 305 mg per day.

What this part is doingWorking one row in full lets a grader verify the scoring arithmetic before trusting the pilot total.

Administration

The questionnaire is designed to be self-completed on paper in about ten minutes, or read aloud by an interviewer for respondents with poor vision or limited reading. Before scoring, the administrator scans for blank rows and asks about each one, because a blank is ambiguous: it may mean never, or it may mean the respondent skipped the line. Answers that look implausible, such as six or more glasses of milk a day, are confirmed with the respondent rather than corrected by the scorer. Portion pictures are printed in color on a separate card so that respondents can hold them beside the form.

The Pilot

One respondent, a 58-year-old woman, completed the questionnaire in 11 minutes. Her estimated intake was 845 mg per day, with 51 percent from milk and yogurt, 22 percent from cheese in mixed dishes and the rest spread across the other rows. The Recommended Dietary Allowance for women aged 51 to 70 is 1,200 mg per day (Institute of Medicine, 2011), so her estimate falls short by about 350 mg.

She raised two problems. She did not know whether her almond milk was fortified, and she found "medium" hard to judge for cheese melted into dishes. Both are now addressed: the fortified row asks respondents to check the carton, and the cheese rows show a photograph of a slice of pizza and a cup of macaroni with the cheese visible.

The pilot shows the questionnaire can sort a respondent into a likely shortfall, but its estimate of 845 mg is a ranking device, not a measurement, and should be read as somewhere between a little and a lot below 1,200 mg rather than as a precise gap of 355.

What this part is doingThe highlighted sentence states what the instrument's output can and cannot mean, which is the critique the unit expects.

What an Estimate of Habit Gives Up

A food frequency questionnaire covers a whole month in one sitting, which a recall cannot do. The price is precision. In a comparison of three questionnaires against repeated recalls, correlations with estimated true intake varied widely between instruments, and the better questionnaires were more useful for ranking people than for estimating absolute intake (Subar et al., 2001). A biomarker study found that questionnaires carried substantial measurement error for energy and protein, enough to weaken any relationship a researcher tries to detect (Kipnis et al., 2003).

For calcium, the questionnaire also misses supplements, which many adults in this age group take; a separate supplement question would be needed before the estimate could be compared with the tolerable upper level.

Limits

The food list was built from general knowledge of calcium sources and has not been checked against national intake data for this age group. Portion pictures are not yet validated. One pilot shows the questionnaire works mechanically; it says nothing about validity.

References

Institute of Medicine. (2011). Dietary reference intakes for calcium and vitamin D. National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/13050

Kipnis, V., Subar, A. F., Midthune, D., Freedman, L. S., Ballard-Barbash, R., Troiano, R. P., Bingham, S., Schoeller, D. A., Schatzkin, A., & Carroll, R. J. (2003). Structure of dietary measurement error: Results of the OPEN biomarker study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 158(1), 14-21. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwg091

Subar, A. F., Thompson, F. E., Kipnis, V., Midthune, D., Hurwitz, P., McNutt, S., McIntosh, A., & Rosenfeld, S. (2001). Comparative validation of the Block, Willett, and National Cancer Institute food frequency questionnaires: The Eating at America's Table Study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 154(12), 1089-1099. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/154.12.1089

Reading the NS 310 Unit 8 instructions

The Unit 8 assignment asks students to create a food frequency questionnaire for a nutrient or food group and to explain how it would be scored and used. Prompts usually ask for the instrument, a rationale, a scoring method and a critique. Choose foods that supply most of the target nutrient in your population. Define the reference period and portion sizes clearly. Use frequency categories that match established instruments. Show the scoring arithmetic with a worked example. Pilot the questionnaire with at least one person and report what you changed. Explain what a frequency estimate gives up compared with a recall. Do not call a class pilot a validation. Expect four to five pages including the instrument.

Inside the NS310 Unit 8 example

Respondent instructions set the past month as the reference period and explain portion pictures. Twenty foods are listed in five groups, with a medium portion for each. Nine frequency choices run from never to six or more times a day. The scoring key gives times-per-day values and portion multipliers, and the milk row is worked to 305 mg. An administration section explains how blanks and implausible answers are handled. The pilot reports 845 mg per day against the RDA and two changes prompted by the respondent. The highlighted sentence explains why the estimate is a ranking. Two studies on questionnaire error close the critique, with a note about missing supplements.

Reading the NS310 Unit 8 grading rubric

Questionnaire assignments are usually graded on the design of the instrument, the logic of the food list, correct scoring and the honesty of the critique. A clear reference period and portion guidance earn credit for usability. Points go to a worked scoring example that a grader can check. Piloting and revising the instrument shows method. Recognizing the trade-off between coverage and precision is a common marker of understanding. Drawing on validation studies strengthens the critique, and layout and prose also count. Instruments that claim to measure exact intake usually lose credit for interpretation. Separating fortified and unfortified items is often credited. Asking about supplements separately is a detail graders often notice for calcium.

Common NS310 Unit 8 mistakes, and how to avoid them

Questionnaires often include foods that contribute little to the target nutrient and miss ones that contribute a lot. Another weakness is a vague reference period, such as usually, with no time frame. Portion sizes are sometimes left undefined. Scoring is described in words without a worked example. Pilots are skipped or reported without any changes. Many critiques say questionnaires are inaccurate without saying in what way. Supplements are often forgotten for nutrients like calcium. If you know the nutrient but are unsure which foods to list, start with the foods that supply most of it. A writer can build the instrument and scoring from that list.

Get an NS310 Unit 8 example written to your instructions

Designing a short questionnaire is one version of NS310 Unit 8; administering an established instrument such as the Diet History Questionnaire and analyzing the output is another. Share whichever prompt you have, the target nutrient or population, and the rubric. Scoring shown and limits stated, a free first custom sample follows in 24-48 hours. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.

More NS310 papers and BS in Nutrition Science samples

NS310 Unit 8 questions, answered

How many foods should a short questionnaire include?

Enough to capture the foods that supply most of the target nutrient in the population, and no more than a respondent will answer carefully. Brief screeners often run from about fifteen to forty items. The example uses twenty and justifies each, which matters more to graders than the count, since an unexplained list reads as a guess.

Why not simply use a 24-hour recall?

Because the two answer different questions. A recall describes one day in detail, while a frequency questionnaire estimates usual intake over weeks or months at the cost of precision. For a nutrient eaten irregularly, such as calcium from canned salmon, a single recall can easily miss it. The rationale section in the example makes that case for the questionnaire.

Can a questionnaire I design be called validated?

Not on the basis of a class pilot. Validation requires comparison against a reference method in a sample large enough to estimate agreement, usually with repeated recalls or records. The example calls its pilot a comprehension test and describes what a validation study would involve, which is the honest framing most rubrics reward.

Where can I find a free NS310 Unit 8 sample paper?

This page has a complete Unit 8 calcium food frequency questionnaire with twenty foods, a scoring key, a worked row and a one-person pilot.

How much calcium do adults aged 51 to 70 need?

The RDA is 1,200 mg a day for women aged 51 to 70 and 1,000 mg for men of the same age, according to the 2011 dietary reference intakes.