Overview
The VEGANScreener is a brief questionnaire developed to assess plant-based diet quality among vegans in Europe. The screener includes 29 questions covering foods, beverages, supplements, and dietary practices relevant to vegan diets. The questionnaire was developed through a multi-stage expert consensus process involving specialists in nutrition, epidemiology, preventive medicine, and diet assessment from multiple European countries.

The VEGANScreener was designed to provide a rapid overview of dietary quality and identify potential areas for dietary improvement in vegan populations. It may be used in research, public health, and healthcare settings.

About the questionnaire

The VEGANScreener includes questions on:

  • vegetables and fruits
  • whole grains and refined grains
  • legumes and plant protein foods
  • nuts, seeds, and plant oils
  • processed vegan foods
  • sugar-sweetened beverages and alcohol
  • fortified foods
  • key supplements relevant to vegan diets

The questionnaire focuses on both:

  • foods and nutrients to encourage
  • foods and nutrients to limit

The final screener contains:

  • 24 food-based questions
  • 5 nutrient- or supplement-related questions

Questionnaire administration:

  • Intended population
    Adults following vegan or predominantly plant-based diets.
  • Administration mode
    The questionnaire may be self-administered or researcher-administered.
  • Completion time
    Approximately 5–10 minutes.

Frequency categories:

Participants report habitual intake frequency using standardized frequency response categories ranging from:

  • Never
    to
  • ≥3 times/day

Supplements:

The screener includes questions on selected supplements relevant to vegan diets, including:

  • vitamin B12
  • iodine
  • vitamin D
  • selenium

Questionnaire preview:


Adapted from:
Kronsteiner-Gicevic S, Bogl LH, Wakolbinger M, et al. Development of the VEGANScreener, a Tool for a Quick Diet Quality Assessment among Vegans in Europe. Nutrients. 2024;16(9):1344, https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16091344.

© 2024 by the authors. Published by MDPI under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Downloads

Research resources

Scoring methods

Two VEGANScreener scoring approaches are currently available:

  • traffic-light scoring
  • numeric scoring

Detailed scoring instructions, visual scoring tables, and downloadable scoring sheets are available on the scoring page.