JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Online tools used to collect dietary intake data have been developed, and can be very useful in collecting data in areas of large geography or diverse food cultures. The level of agreement in results obtained using online dietary recall tools versus traditional methods is something which needs to be better understood.

Objective:

The study objective was to assess the extent of agreement between self-administered and the interviewer-administered 24-hour dietary recalls in Russian adults and school-aged children using an adaptation of an online 24-hour recall tool.

Methods:

The present online dietary assessment tool is based on a previously validated online dietary assessment tool, which has been adapted to the Russian diet and language. A randomized 50% of participants completed a self-administered online dietary recall first, followed by an interviewer-administered 24-hour dietary recall later that same day, and the other 50% of participants - vice-versa. Following at least one week wash out period, during Visit 2, participants completed the two dietary recalls in the opposite order. Statistical analysis was carried out on the intake results from both methods for the two recalls.

Results:

A total of 194 participants, who completed the study, had available data on the two assessments by the two methods. In total, 28 nutrients and energy intakes were analyzed during the study. Nutrient intakes from both methods were not statistically different from each other for Recalls 1 and 2 in younger children. In older children, there were significant differences between the two methods in protein intakes (P=0.013) for Recall 1, and carbohydrate (P=0.022) and sodium intakes (P=0.011) for Recall 2. In adults, significant differences were observed between the two methods for several nutrients, including energy (kcal) (P=0.015) and total sugar (P=0.04). A moderate to excellent reliability between the two methods was observed in younger children. In older children, a moderate to good reliability was observed, with the exception of sodium, which indicated poor reliability. In adults, moderate to excellent reliability between both methods was observed with the exception of vitamins B1, B2 and B6, and pantothenic acid. The measured anthropometric data (BMI, weight, and height) tended to be greater than self-reported (with the exception for height in the older school age children and adult cohorts). The majority of respondents were very positive in their evaluation of the online dietary assessment tool.

Conclusions:

Overall the online dietary assessment tool performs well when compared with a face-to-face interviewer-administered 24-hour dietary recall and provides comparable estimates of energy and nutrient intakes.