Characteristics of 1220 dietary surveys in the GDD 2017
| Survey characteristics | Overall | Public surveys* | Private surveys* |
| Surveys included†, n | 1220 | 864 | 356 |
| No of countries represented, n | 188 | 174 | 128 |
| Per cent of the global population represented in 2015, % | 99.0 | 98.1 | 87.4 |
| Demographic characteristics reported by surveys‡ | |||
| Children/adolescents (ages 0–19 years), % | 73.9 | 76.4 | 68.0 |
| Age 0–0.49 | 26.3 | 35.1 | 5.1 |
| Age 0.5–0.99 | 26.9 | 35.4 | 6.2 |
| Age 1–1.9 | 29.3 | 34.3 | 17.0 |
| Age 2–5.9 | 32.5 | 35.6 | 25.0 |
| Age 6–10 | 32.0 | 33.6 | 28.1 |
| Age 11–14 | 49.8 | 57.3 | 31.7 |
| Age 15–19 | 61.2 | 64.6 | 53.1 |
| Adults (ages 20+ years), % | 64.5 | 57.2 | 82.3 |
| Age 20–44 | 62.5 | 56.4 | 77.2 |
| Age 45–69 | 61.7 | 56.3 | 75.0 |
| Age 70+ | 32.8 | 25.6 | 50.3 |
| Level of educational attainment, % | 30.2 | 24.7 | 43.5 |
| Urban versus rural residence, % | |||
| Both urban and rural | 52.2 | 62.3 | 27.8 |
| Urban only | 4.7 | 0.7 | 14.3 |
| Rural only | 1.4 | 0.0 | 4.8 |
| Information not available | 41.7 | 37.0 | 53.1 |
| Pregnancy/lactation status of women, % | 11.2 | 15.2 | 1.7 |
| Year of data collection, % | |||
| 1980–1999 | 36.1 | 42.0 | 21.6 |
| 2000–2015 | 63.9 | 58.0 | 78.4 |
| Representativeness | |||
| National, No surveys (% of total) No countries (% of global population represented) | 880 (72.1) 185 (99.6) | 664 (76.9) 172 (99.6) | 216 (60.7) 95 (84.7) |
| Subnational, No surveys (% of total) No countries (% of global population represented) | 207 (17.0) 75 (81.6) | 146 (16.9) 45 (67.8) | 61 (17.1) 46 (46.2) |
| Community, No surveys (% of total) No countries (% of global population represented) | 133 (10.9) 48 (70.2) | 54 (6.3) 19 (35.1) | 79 (22.2) 36 (48.2) |
| Response rate, % | |||
| 60%–100% | 37.8 | 24.8 | 69.4 |
| 20%–59% | 3.2 | 1.2 | 8.1 |
| <20% | 5.7 | 8.0 | 0.0 |
| Information not available | 53.4 | 66.1 | 22.5 |
| Sampling methodology, % | |||
| Probability sampling, with survey weights | 38.4 | 39.5 | 36.0 |
| Probability sampling, no survey weights | 32.7 | 32.9 | 32.3 |
| Non-probability sampling | 4.2 | 0.7 | 12.6 |
| Information not available | 24.7 | 27.0 | 19.0 |
| Median (5th, 95th percentile) no of GDD dietary food groups per survey§ | 6.0 (1.0, 30.0) | 3.0 (1.0, 14.0) | 11.0 (2.0, 47.0) |
| Dietary assessment method | |||
| Single or multiple recalls/records | |||
| No surveys, (% of total) | 286 (23.4)) | 96 (11.1) | 190 (53.4) |
| No countries, (% global population represented) | 68 (78.0) | 90 (40.4) | 64 (84.7) |
| Food frequency questionnaire | |||
| No surveys, (% of total) | 503 (41.2) | 346 (40.0) | 157 (44.1) |
| No countries, (% of global population represented) | 164 (94.3) | 141 (89.5) | 89 (57.2) |
| DHS questionnaire | |||
| No surveys, (% of total) | 193 (15.8) | 190 (22.0) | 3 (0.8) |
| No countries, (% of global population represented) | 70 (53.9) | 69 (53.4) | 2 (1.7) |
| Biomarker (urine sodium, haemoglobin) | |||
| No surveys, (% of total) | 160 (13.1) | 154 (17.8) | 6 (1.7) |
| No countries, (% of global population represented) | 60 (70.7) | 59 (71.3) | 5 (2.5) |
| Household survey | |||
| No surveys, (% of total) | 78 (6.4) | 78 (9.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| No countries, (% of global population represented) | 27 (15.1) | 27 (15.3) | 0 (0.0) |
| Data type¶, % | |||
| Individual-level microdata | 58.6 | 65.6 | 41.6 |
| Aggregated stratum-level distributions | 41.4 | 34.4 | 58.4 |
| Level of data collection, % | |||
| Individual level | 92.5 | 89.8 | 99.2 |
| Household level | 5.7 | 7.8 | 0.8 |
| Information not available | 1.7 | 2.4 | 0.0 |
*Public surveys are those retrieved from publicly available databases; private surveys are non-publicly available surveys that are contributed by a data owner (corresponding member); .
†Each survey count represents a country-specific survey year. When data collection for a single survey was performed over multiple years, the median survey year was used (or first year if 2 years).
‡Because data on children/adolescents (0–19 years), urban/rural residence, education, pregnancy/lactation and response rate were not collected in GDD 2010 (41.7% of total surveys), these percentages may underestimate available data in these surveys. Values are shown for surveys including data on that subgroup and may sum to greater than 100% because a survey can include multiple subgroups.
§Based on the food groups collected in GDD 2010 (up to 21, 41.7% of surveys) and GDD 2017 (up to 54, 58.3% of surveys), not including biomarker surveys.
¶Individual-level microdata represent individual-level data in possession of the GDD. Aggregated stratum-level distributions are based on individual-level data aggregated by data owners in standardised subgroups jointly stratified by age, sex, education and urban/rural residence, and pregnancy/lactation status, as available; and provided to the GDD including stratum-specific means, SD and percentiles of intake. Nearly all (94.2%) surveys collected in 2014–2020 (GDD 2017 round of data collection) were individual-level microdata.
DHS, Demographic Health Survey; GDD, Global Dietary Database.