Evaluating the Reliability of Assessing Home-Packed Food Items Using Digital Photographs and Dietary Log Sheets

Abstract

Objective: To assess the reliability of manual data entry for home-packed food items by using digital photographs and dietary log sheets. Methods: Data from 60 lunches were entered by researcher A and B independently. Researcher B re-entered researcher A's items within 1 week. Researcher B then re-entered her items 4 weeks from the initial entry point. Results: The inter-rater reliability intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.83 for total kilocalories and ranged from 0.75-0.87 for macronutrients. The intra-rater reliability ICC was 0.92 for total kcal and ranged from 0.90-0.92 for macronutrients. The inter-rater ICCs for the 5 selected micronutrients ranged from 0.33-0.83, whereas the intra-rater ICCs for these micronutrients ranged from 0.65-0.98. Conclusions and Implications: This method of data entry is feasible and its reliability is promising for macronutrient investigations. Continued assessment of this method for investigations related to micronutrient content is recommended.

Novel Tools in Determining the Physiological Demands and Nutritional Practices of Ontario FireRangers during Fire Deployments

“…Photographic dietary assessment, previously validated in the literature [34,35,36,37,48,49], was modified for use in this study. The audio-video recording of meals, allowed for the independent collection of food data during deployments, with both a photographic and verbal recording of meals, prior to dining, replacing previous methods of self-report (i.e.…”

“…coffee in portable container). This method is a novel adaptation of the photographic food-logging method that has been used successfully in previous research [48,49] and has been deemed to be a more accurate and reliable method than self-report methods (i.e. recall) [34,35,36,37].…”

An Assessment of the Validity of an Audio-Video Method of Food Journaling for Dietary Quantity and Quality

“…There is however an inherent challenge to using this methodology: it is difficult/impossible to determine food contents when the food is not readily visible. Gauthier et al [9] overcame this problem this by having participants list the items in their meals; however, this created similar challenges found with written journaling. The use of audio-video recording of meals therefore aimed to reduce the burden of participation and facilitated food selection such that participants may also have decreased awareness about the food assessment process.…”

“…The use of food journaling has become mainstream and studied at length in the last decade; however, few advances in this methodology resolving these limitations have occurred. The exception is the use of photography, although this method still requires a written documentation of food items [9].…”

“…The AV method employed by Robertson et al builds on the principle of the photographic dietary record; that is, the video image provides (presumably) equivalent data to a digital photo but with the benefit that the written journal is no longer required, since participants instead included an audio dictation of the meal and any hidden or unseen ingredients while video-recording [19]. Given that previous research has validated the photographic method for measuring food intake, compared to visual estimation [9, 10], it suggests that video-recording would provide similar results and that the AV method may be a novel, alternative method to estimating food intake via direct observation [21]. However, to our knowledge, the AV method has not yet been validated in the literature.…”