Shared Resources
Nutrition Support
Faculty Director: Suzanne P. Murphy, PhD, RD

The Nutrition Support Shared Resource provides dietary assessment information that will support diet-related cancer research studies. The staff of the resource perform several services:

• Maintain a food composition table with information on up to 174 nutrients and food components for over 2300 foods.
• Maintain a supplement composition table for up to 217 nutrients and food components in over 3300 dietary supplements.
• Develop quantitative scannable food frequency questionnaires for use in epidemiologic studies and provide the nutrient composition data needed for the analysis of questionnaire responses.
• Review the accuracy of food records, dietary recalls, and dietary supplement questionnaires, and assist with data entry procedures.
• Provide training for project staff in appropriate dietary data collection methods.
• Assist with the design, analysis, and interpretation of dietary data for studies of diet and cancer.

The composition databases, as well as the questionnaires, are customized to the multiethnic population of Hawaii, and have also been validated for use with other ethnic groups in Los Angeles and the Pacific Islands. Thus, the resource provides tools for investigators that are not available elsewhere. The availability of a centralized resource also increases the quality of the dietary analyses, allows CRCH members to realize cost savings, and promotes inter-programmatic and inter-institutional collaboration.

The staff for the resource includes three nutritionists, a programmer, and a student assistant. Funding is provided by a Cancer Center Support Grant supplemented by charge-back fees for services performed. Many of the services are also available to users outside the CRCH for a fee. For example, we provide our standard 18-page food frequency questionnaires to researchers from other institutions for a total fee of $11 each (including printing, scanning, and nutrient/food group intake analyses).

Download SURE QX for nutrient computation from supplement use files here.