Nutritional assessment in childhood cancer survivors: SCCSS-Nutrition study protocol (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Childhood cancer survivors (CCSs) are at high risk of developing adverse late health effects. Poor nutritional intake may contribute to this risk, but information about dietary intake is limited. OBJECTIVE This study will assess dietary intake of CCSs and compare two dietary assessment tools: a self-reported food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), and dietary measurements from urine spot samples. METHODS In the Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, we assessed dietary intake of CCSs via a validated FFQ. To a subset of CCSs from the French-speaking region of Switzerland, we sent a urine spot collection kit to analyse urinary sodium, potassium, urea, urate, creatinine, and phosphate content. We will compare the FFQ with the urine spot analyses to quantify the intake of different nutrients in CCSs. Data collection took place between March 2016 and March 2018. RESULTS We contacted 1599 CCSs of whom 919 (57%) returned an FFQ. We excluded 11 CCSs who were pregnant or were breastfeeding, 35 CCSs with missing dietary data, and 71 CCSs who had unreliable FFQ data, resulting in 802 CCSs available for FFQ analyses. To a subset of 197 CCSs in French-speaking Switzerland we sent a urine spot collection kit, and 111 (56%) returned a urine sample. We expect to have the results from analyses of these samples in mid-2019. CONCLUSIONS The SCCSS-Nutrition study has collected in-depth dietary data that will allow us to assess dietary intake and quality and compare two dietary assessment tools. This study will contribute to the current knowledge of nutrition among CCSs and is a step towards surveillance guidelines and targeted nutritional recommendations for CCSs in Switzerland. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov identifier SCCSS: NCT03297034