Harmonizing Dietary Exposure of Adult and Older Individuals: A Methodological Work of the Collaborative PROMED-COG Pooled Cohorts Study

Objectives: The PROtein-enriched MEDiterranean diet to combat undernutrition and promote healthy neuroCOGnitive ageing in older adults (PROMED-COG) is a European project that investigates the role of nutritional status on neurocognitive ageing. This methodological paper describes the harmonization process of dietary data from four Italian observational studies (Pro.V.A., ILSA, BEST-FU, and NutBrain). Methods: Portion sizes and food frequency consumption within different food frequency questionnaires were retrospectively harmonized across the datasets on daily food frequency, initially analyzing raw data using the original codebook and establishing a uniform food categorization system. Individual foods were then aggregated into 27 common food groups. Results: The pooled cohort consisted of 9326 individuals (40–101 years, 52.4% female). BEST-FU recruited younger participants who were more often smokers and less physically active than those of the other studies. Dietary instruments varied across the studies differing in the number of items and time intervals assessed, but all collected dietary intake through face-to-face interviews with a common subset of items. The average daily intakes of the 27 food groups across studies varied, with BEST-FU participants generally consuming more fruits, vegetables, red meat, and fish than the other studies. Conclusions: Harmonization of dietary data presents challenges but allows for the integration of information from diverse studies, leading to a more robust and statistically powerful dataset. The study highlights the feasibility and benefits of data harmonization, despite inherent limitations, and sets the stage for future research into the effects of diet on cognitive health and aging.