The information used did not include important influencing factors in food selection and consumption, such as household income, community food availability, household food preferences, and women's time use, and household health indicators, such as the presence of diabetes, hypertension or other health conditions that may change eating behaviors.6,10 Results may not reflect individual diet quality, because dietary information was collected and analyzed at the household level. The accuracy depended on respondents' knowledge and recall and social response biases.
Dietary information was collected for the ‘‘past week’’ and PAHD was assessed for the ‘‘past month.’’
Although these are different time frames, responses to PAHD item may be biased toward the most recent experience of the respondent.
Finally, although the measure for overall diet quality (the HDQI) was approved by experts in El Salvador,22 it has not been formally validated.