DIET@NET: Best Practice Guidelines for dietary assessment in health research

Abstract

BackgroundDietary assessment is complex, and strategies to select the most appropriate dietary assessment tool (DAT) in epidemiological research are needed. The DIETary Assessment Tool NETwork (DIET@NET) aimed to establish expert consensus on Best Practice Guidelines (BPGs) for dietary assessment using self-report.MethodsThe BPGs were developed using the Delphi technique. Two Delphi rounds were conducted. A total of 131 experts were invited, and of these 65 accepted, with 48 completing Delphi round I and 51 completing Delphi round II. In all, a total of 57 experts from North America, Europe, Asia and Australia commented on the 47 suggested guidelines.ResultsForty-three guidelines were generated, grouped into the following four stages: Stage I. Define what is to be measured in terms of dietary intake (what? who? and when?); Stage II. Investigate different types of DATs; Stage III. Evaluate existing tools to select the most appropriate DAT by evaluating published validation studies; Stage IV. Think through the implementation of the chosen DAT and consider sources of potential biases.ConclusionsThe Delphi technique consolidated expert views on best practice in assessing dietary intake. The BPGs provide a valuable guide for health researchers to choose the most appropriate dietary assessment method for their studies. These guidelines will be accessible through the Nutritools website, www.nutritools.org.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12916-017-0962-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Reliability and validity of a Mediterranean diet and culinary index (MediCul) tool in an older population with mild cognitive impairment

“…Such elements have been recommended to improve calculation of Mediterranean diet scores ( 63 ) . In its development, MediCul considered various best practice guidelines for dietary assessment ( 64 ) now advised by The DIETary Assessment Tool NETwork ( 65 ) . The fact that a MEDAS score can also be derived from MediCul improves its utility so that comparisons with different studies, for various outcomes, can also be made.…”

Adult diet in England: where is more support needed to achieve dietary recommendations?

“…The width of credible intervals re ect the relatively small sample size of respondents from the NDNS, which was the most appropriate dataset to capture a range of diet outcomes; the Health Survey for England (average annual sample of approximately 10,000) stopped consistently collecting data on dietary behaviours beyond a screener to collect consumption of fruit and vegetables in 2012 (29). In addition, NDNS collects data using a four-day food diary which is more reliable than a screener based on the last 24 hours of consumption as seen in Health Survey for England and the Active Live Survey (47).…”

Measuring energy, macro and micronutrient intake in UK children and adolescents: a comparison of validated dietary assessment tools

“…Functions will allow creation of web-based tools using the food questionnaire creator, ensuring easier data collection and nutrient analysis, improving the options available for researchers. The website also hosts the recently developed expert consensus Best Practice Guidelines (BPGs), providing support to researchers when looking to select a suitable DAT [18]. These can be accessed through the www.nutritools.org website.…”

“…None of the existing reviews provided results in a format allowing comparison between tools based on limits of agreement between the test and reference tool. A systematic review of reviews [17], including details of tools validated on infants, children and adolescents has been undertaken by the DIETary Assessment Tool NETwork (Diet@NET) partnership project and made available on the www.nutritools.org website to enable researchers to compare and choose the DAT most suitable for their research purpose [18].…”