Design and Reproducibility of a Mini-Survey to Evaluate the Quality of Food Intake (Mini-ECCA) in a Mexican Population

Abstract

Evaluating food intake quality may contribute to the development of nutrition programs. In Mexico, there are no screening tools that can be administered quickly for the evaluation of this variable. The aim was to determine the reproducibility of a mini-survey designed to evaluate the quality of food intake (Mini-ECCA) in a Mexican population. Mini-ECCA consists of 12 questions that are based on Mexican and international recommendations for food and non-alcoholic beverage intake, with the support of photographs for food quantity estimation. Each question scores as 0 (unhealthy) or 1 (healthy), and the final score undergoes a classification procedure. Through the framework of a nutritional study, 152 employees of the municipal water company in Guadalajara, Mexico (April–August 2016), were invited to participate. The survey was administered in two rounds (test and retest) with a 15-day interval between them. We calculated the Spearman correlation coefficient, the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), and weighted kappa for score classification agreement (SPSS versus 14 p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant). The survey obtained a “good” reproducibility (ρ = 0.713, p < 0.001), and an excellent concordance (ICC = 0.841 Confidence Interval 95% 0.779, 0.885). It can thus be said that the Mini-ECCA displayed acceptable reproducibility and is suitable for the purpose of dietary assessment and guidance.

Second Version of a Mini-Survey to Evaluate Food Intake Quality (Mini-ECCA v.2): Reproducibility and Ability to Identify Dietary Patterns in University Students

“…In Mexico, a tool called the Mini Food Intake Quality Survey (Mini-ECCA), whose structure was similar to that of indices which measured adherence to the Mediterranean diet and included photographs as a visual reference to estimate quantity, as they present lower food quantity estimation error than other visual support tools [19], provided a rapid assessment of food intake quality as indicated by adherence to intake recommendations. This survey produced good levels of reproducibility (ρ = 0.713, p < 0.001; ICC = 0.844, 95% CI, 0.793-0.883) and moderate levels of agreement in terms of food intake quality classification (κ = 0.545, 95% CI, 0.484 to 0.606, p < 0.001), and thus proved to be suitable for dietary evaluation and guidance purposes [26]. This is, as far as we know, the only short survey assessing food quality or adherence to national (Mexican) [17,27,28] and international guidelines (at that time) [1,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] in Latin America.…”

“…Furthermore, our tool did not include alcohol intake, a topic that also must be evaluated in food intake quality. Another limitation of the first version of the tool was that some questions needed to be reworded so people unfamiliar with nutritional terminology could easily understand them like fats and sweetened beverages, and no other analyses besides reproducibility were considered [26]. In addition, given the benefits associated with reviewing, updating, improving and validating existing tools in ways that will give health professionals and authorities more accurate data for decision-making [4], a second version of the Mini-ECCA was developed.…”

Perceived Diet Quality, Eating Behaviour, and Lifestyle Changes in a Mexican Population with Internet Access during Confinement for the COVID-19 Pandemic: ESCAN-COVID19Mx Survey

“…TheESCAN-COVID19Mx survey has five components, divided as follows: (I) sociodemographic characteristics, (II) diet quality [11] (III), emotional eating (over and under eating from negative emotions [12], (IV) physical activity and sedentary behaviour [13], and (V) lifestyle factors (quality of life). Some of the scales used as a reference in the ESCAN-COVID19Mx survey were validated in the Mexican population and could be answered in less than 15 min.…”

COVID-19 Screening By Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Seropositivity: Clinical And Epidemiological Characteristics, Comorbidities, And Food Intake Quality

“…Once the test was done, the participants completed a survey that included two sections while they waited for their result (approximately 10 minutes). The rst section consists of 14 questions to identify the participant comorbidities, clinical, and epidemiological characteristics; the second section includes 14 items of the Mini-Survey to Evaluate Food Intake Quality (Mini-ECCA v.2), previously validated [15].…”