Food search in a computerized 24 hour recall (24hdr) for children should be easiest when the categories reflect children's categorization of foods, in contrast to professional categories. This study assessed how 8-13 year old children categorized and labeled mixed foods (e.g. fried rice, lasagna), and how these were influenced by child characteristics. A set of 48 cards with pictures and names of mixed foods from 14 professionally defined food groups was sorted by each child into piles of similar foods. Participants (n= 146), including 8 to13 year old 130 English speaking, and 16 Spanish speaking children, attended data collection in the summer, 2006. One way ANOVA, pairwise comparisons and Robinson matrices for identification of clusters were used. Children created an average of 10.5 (± 5.5) piles with 6.0 (±4.1) cards per pile. No substantial differences in Robinson clustering were detected across subcategories for each of the demographic characteristics, body mass index, or 6-n-propylthiouracil sensitivity. For the majority of the piles, children provided "Taxonomic-Professional" (26.0%) labels, such as Vegetables, Sandwiches and Drinks, or "Specificfood item" (23.0%) labels, i.e. the name of the food. These categories may be used to facilitate mixed food search in a computerized 24hdr for children in this age group.

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This study assessed how 8-to 13-year-old children categorized and labeled grain foods and how these categories and labels were influenced by child characteristics. The main hypotheses were that children categorized foods in consistent ways and these food categories differed from the professional food categories. A set of 71 cards with pictures and names of grain foods from eight professionally denned food groups was sorted by each child into piles of similar foods. There were 149 8-to 13-year-old children (133 English-speaking, 16 Spanish-speaking) in this exploratory study. One-way analysis of variance and Robinson matrices for identification of clusters of food items were calculated. Children created a mean (± standard deviation) of 8.3±3.8 piles with 8.6±9.1 cards per pile. No substantial differences in Robinson clustering were detected across subcategories for each of the demographic characteristics. For the majority of the piles, children provided "taxonomicprofessional" (34.5%) labels, such as bread for the professional category of breads, rolls, and tortillas, or "script" (26.1%) labels, such as breakfast for the professional category of pancakes, waffles, and flapjacks. These categories may be used to facilitate food search in a computerized 24-hour dietary recall for children in this age group.Accurate measurement of children's food intake is necessary for research and practice (1). A 24-hour dietary recall is considered the preferred method of diet assessment (2) and is designed to record actual intake over a certain time period, obtaining specific foods, beverages, amounts, cooking procedures, seasonings, add-ons, locations, and times of food consumed (3). Conducting a detailed 24-hour dietary recall, however, can be cost-prohibitive for large studies and practice. A proto-type computerized 24-hour dietary recall (called the Food Intake Recording Software System or FIRSSt) for children was developed to minimize these costs, but only assessed fruit and vegetable intake (4). Research is needed to extend FIRSSt to cover all food groups.The age at which children reach a level of cognitive development at which they can accurately report dietary intake is not clear (5). Some studies have obtained reasonable 24-hour dietary recalls from 8-year-old girls (6), whereas food frequencies have elicited data similar to that Copyright © 2008 NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript from adults only with children 13 years of age and older (7). Girls may be more reliable than boys (8), differences might be associated with ethnic groups (9), and underreporting has been associated with obesity (10). It is unknown how child characteristics affect the categorization or reporting of grain foods. Card sorts exploring how children categorized single food items (11), mixed dishes (12), and fruits and vegetables (13) found that child-generated categories accounted for 92% or more of the clustering variance, but the names of the categories only partially reflected a professional nutri...

Objective: This exploratory study assessed how 8-13-year-old children categorised and labelled fruit and vegetables (FaV), and how these were influenced by child characteristics, to specify second-level categories in a hierarchical food search system for a computerised 24 h dietary recall (hdr). Design: Two sets of food cards, sixty-seven for fruit (F) and sixty-four for vegetables (V), with pictures and names of FaV from ten professionally defined food categories were sorted, separately, by each child into piles of similar foods. Demographic data, BMI and 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) taster status were obtained. Setting: Participants attended the Children's Nutrition Research Center in the summer of 2006. Subjects: In all, 152 8-13-year-old children, predominantly English-speaking, of whom sixteen were predominantly Spanish-speaking. Results: Children created an average of 8?5 (5?3) piles with 7?9 (11?4) cards per pile for the F, and an average of 10?1 (4?8) piles with 6?2 (7?9) cards per pile for the V. No substantial differences in Robinson clustering were detected across subcategories for each of the demographic characteristics, BMI or PROP sensitivity. Children provided clusters names that were mostly 'Taxonomic -Professional' labels, such as salads, berries, peppers, for both F (51?8 %) and V (52?1 %). Conclusions: These categories should be tested to assess their ability to facilitate search of FaV items in a computerised 24 hdr for children in this age group.