U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Reduce consumption of saturated fat by people aged 2 years and over — NWS‑11 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), CDC/NCHS

Baseline: 11.4 percent was the mean percentage of calories from saturated fat consumed by persons aged 2 years and over in 2013-16

Target: 8.4 percent

Numerator
Sum of percent daily caloric intake from saturated fat from a first day 24 hour recall among persons aged 2 years and over.
Denominator
Number of persons aged 2 years and over.
Target-setting method
Percentage point improvement
Target-setting method details
Percentage point improvement from the baseline using Cohen's h effect size of 0.10.
1
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were evaluated for this objective but it was not possible to project a target because the slope for the linear trend was not statistically significant and the trend was moving away from the desired direction. A percentage point improvement was calculated using Cohen's h effect size of 0.1. This method was used because it was a statistically significant improvement from the baseline and there was little or no change in Healthy People 2020.

Methodology

Methodology notes

What We Eat in America (WWEIA) is the dietary intake interview component of NHANES. WWEIA is conducted as a partnership between the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). DHHS is responsible for the sample design and data collection, and USDA is responsible for the survey's dietary data collection methodology, maintenance of the databases used to code and process the data, and data review and processing. USDA also funds the collection and processing of Day 2 dietary intake data, which are used to develop variance estimates and calculate usual nutrient intakes.

NHANES includes the collection of 1 day of dietary data for all respondents through in-person 24 hour recalls and collection of a 2nd day 24-hour recall by telephone. For the analyses of mean intakes, only the first 24 hour recall is used. Each respondent is asked to recall the kinds and amounts of foods eaten at home and away from home during the previous day. Amounts of foods reported in household measures are then converted to gram amounts, and saturated fat intake estimated with the use of food composition files. Both dietary recalls are obtained by trained dietary interviewers using USDA's Automated Multiple Pass Method (AMPM). Estimates are calculated using the USDA Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED).

Breast-fed children are excluded from the numerator and denominator.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Retained, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 with no change in measurement.

1. Effect size h=0.1 was chosen to correspond with 10% improvement from a baseline of 50%.