GDD 2018 Dietary Data Harmonization

The methods for this work build and expand upon the approach of the GDD 2018 to identify, collate, and standardize existing dietary data and create a comprehensive and comparable database of diet intakes globally. Through the GDD harmonization, we have standardized processes to: determine survey eligibility; prioritize eligible surveys; contact data owners and screen surveys for inclusion; harmonize survey data, including structure, variable definition and unit, and food characterization; perform data checks; and publicly disseminate the harmonized datasets in our online platform. Thus far, 55 datasets, including 32 nationally representative surveys, have been harmonized and are being progressively uploaded in our platform.