Statistical Program to Assess Dietary Exposure (SPADE) estimates the habitual intake distribution for daily and episodically consumed foods or dietary components based on information of intake, measured on a limited number of days (e.g. 24 hr recalls) and sometimes in combination with a questionnaire (e.g. food frequency questionnaires).
SPADE (Statistical Program to Assess Dietary Exposure) is a statistical program, which estimates habitual intake distributions. SPADE is a program in R, which is freely available.
SPADE models the habitual intake distribution as a function of age and is able to compare this distribution directly to cut-point values to estimate the proportion above or below. Uncertainty in the habitual intake distribution and in the proportion below or above a cut-off value is quantified using bootstrap and provides 95%-confidence intervals.
SPADE consists of several modelling options, depending on the type of dietary components:
- 1-part model
To estimate dietary intake from dietary components consumed on a daily basis by almost all participants - 2-part model
To estimate dietary intake from dietary components consumed episodically - 3-part model
To estimate total dietary intake from foods and dietary supplements - Multi-part model
To estimate total dietary intake from multiple food sources
In the 3rd and 4th model options the first shrink then add approach is used.