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Design and implementation of the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Objective:

To provide an overview of the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence Cross-Sectional Study (HELENA-CSS) design, with particular attention to its quality control procedures. Other important methodological aspects are described in detail throughout this supplement.

Design:

Description of the HELENA-CSS sampling and recruitment approaches, standardization and harmonization processes, data collection and analysis strategies and quality control activities.

Results:

The HELENA-CSS is a multi-centre collaborative study conducted in European adolescents located in urban settings. The data management systems, quality assurance monitoring activities, standardized manuals of operating procedures and training and study management are addressed in this paper. Various quality controls to ensure collection of valid and reliable data will be discussed in this supplement, as well as quantitative estimates of measurement error.

Conclusion:

The great advantage of the HELENA-CSS is the strict standardization of the fieldwork and the blood analyses, which precludes to a great extent the kind of immeasurable confounding bias that often interferes when comparing results from isolated studies.

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Acknowledgements

The HELENA Study was carried out with the financial support of the European Community Sixth RTD Framework Programme (Contract FOOD-CT-2005-007034). The content of this paper reflects only the authors' views and the European Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. The researchers from the University of Zaragoza, Spain (LAM) are complementarily supported by FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE (Spain). We thank Ms Carine Vereecken, PhD, for her kind and constructive comments on this paper.

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Correspondence to L A Moreno.

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Frédéric Gottrand has received consulting fees from Numico Clinical Nutrition, lecture fees from SMS and grant support from Danone Research. The remaining authors state no conflict of interest.

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Moreno, L., De Henauw, S., González-Gross, M. et al. Design and implementation of the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence Cross-Sectional Study. Int J Obes 32 (Suppl 5), S4–S11 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2008.177

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