Background There currently are no standard, low-cost, and validated methods to assess the timing of food intake. Methods The concordance between recall based survey questions and food times estimated from multiple daily food records in 249 generally healthy, free-living adults from the SHIFT Study (ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT02997319) was assessed. At baseline, participants were asked: “At what time do you first start and stop eating on weekdays/workdays and weekends/non-workdays?” and “At what time do you have your main meal on weekdays/workdays and weekends/non-workdays?” Participants were then asked to complete up to 14 days of food records noting the start time of each eating occasion. The timing of the first, last, and main (largest % calories) eating occasions, and the midpoint of energy intake were determined from food records. Wilcoxon matched pairs signed rank and Kendall's coefficient of concordance were used to compare differences and determine agreements between the methods for 4 food timing parameters. Results Eating occasions on work and free days showed significant agreements between the two methods, except for the main eating occasion on free days. Significant agreements were generally modest and ranged from 0.16 (work days main eating occasion) to 0.45 (work days first eating occasion). Generally, times based on recall were later than those estimated from food records and the differences in estimated times were smaller on work days compared to free days and smaller for the first compared to the last eating occasion. Main eating occasions from food records alternated between lunch and dinner times, contributing to low concordance with recalled times. Conclusions Modest agreements were found between food times derived from simple, recall based survey questions and food times estimated from multiple daily food records. Single administration of these questions can effectively characterize the overall timing of eating occasions within a population for chrononutrition research purposes. Summary There currently are no standard and low-cost methods to assess the timing of food intake. This study validates simple, recall-based questions that can effectively characterize food timing in free-living populations. Trial Registration: Shift Work, Heredity, Insulin, and Food Timing (SHIFT) Study (ClinicalTrials.gov: # NCT02997319).
Objectives Emerging epidemiological and experimental studies suggest that food timing associates with obesity, weight-loss success, and other adverse cardiometabolic health outcomes. Although anecdotally simple to ascertain, the validity of recalled food timing has not been evaluated against prospectively collected data and current methods do not account for day of the week. Our objective is to validate a novel, recall-based tool, the Eating Pattern Questionnaire (EPQ), aimed at assessing food timing in healthy, free-living populations for work/school days (WD) and non-work days (NWD), against up to 2 weeks of prospectively collected 24-hour food records (FR). Methods A total of 95 participants (72% female; mean age: 33 ± 11 years) from the ongoing Shift Work, Heredity, Insulin, and Food Timing (SHIFT) Study (ClinicalTrials.gov: #NCT02997319) were included. On the EPQ, participants were asked to indicate whether food/beverages are always/sometimes/never consumed during every hour of a WD and NWD (hourly increments). On FR, participants were instructed by trained nutritionists to indicate type and time of all food/beverage items consumed. Food timing was averaged for WD and NWD separately across all completed FR. Five clock times in hour: minute were derived from the two tools: first/last eating episode and breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Concordance was quantified using Kendall's correlation of concordance (W). Results A higher level of concordance was observed for clock time of first eating episode on WD (W = 0.867) compared to NWD (W = 0.568). Clock times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner had comparable concordance on WD and NWD, with highest concordance observed for lunch (WD: W = 1; NWD: W = 0.886), followed by breakfast (WD: W = 0.759; NWD: W = 0.745) then dinner (WD: W = 0.641; NWD: W = 0.665). Lastly, low concordance was found for clock time of the last eating episode for both WD and NWD (WD: W = 0.220; NWD: W = 0.313). Conclusions By comparing clock times estimated from a recall-based questionnaire against prospectively collected food timing data, we observe that individuals may more accurately recall the timing of meals earlier on in the day, particularly on work days, compared to meals later in the evening. These findings provide first insights into the accuracy of food timing data ascertained through self-reported in cohort studies. Funding Sources NIH-R01DK105072.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.