Usual Dietary Intakes: SAS Macros for the NCI Method

The NCI method can be used to estimate:

• the distribution of usual food or nutrient intake for a population or subpopulation;
• individual food or nutrient intake for use in a disease model; and
• the effects of individual covariates on food or nutrient consumption.

The particular statistical techniques used depend on whether the dietary components of interest are consumed nearly every day or episodically, and on the number of dietary components to be modeled simultaneously.

SAS macros are currently available to facilitate modeling of:

• a single dietary component, whether consumed daily or episodically; or
• ratios of two dietary components that are consumed nearly every day.

As new papers are published documenting extensions to the NCI Method, additional accompanying macros will be posted for use by analysts.

Please send any comments and questions regarding the macros to usualintake@imsweb.com. We will consider feedback received from users when developing future versions of our software and other resources. We regret that we are unable to respond to every comment and question.