Evaluation of Web-based Dietary Assessment Software for Children: comparing reported fruit, juice and vegetable intakes with plasma carotenoid concentration and school lunch observations

Abstract

Web-based Dietary Assessment Software for Children (WebDASC) was developed to estimate dietary intake in a school meal intervention study among 8-to 11-year-old Danish children. The present study validates self-reported fruit, juice and vegetable (FJV) intakes in 8-to 11-year-old children by comparing intake with plasma carotenoid concentration, and by comparing the reported FJV intake to actually eaten FJV, as observed by a photographic method. A total of eighty-one children, assisted by parents, reported their diet for seven consecutive days. For the same five schooldays as they reported their diet, the children's school lunch was photographed and weighed before and after eating. In the week after the diet reporting, fasting blood samples were taken. Self-reported intake of FJV and estimated intake of carotenoids were compared with plasma carotenoid concentration. Accuracy of self-reported food and FJV consumption at school lunch was measured in terms of matches, intrusion, omission and faults, when compared with images and weights of lunch intake. Selfreported intake of FJV was significantly correlated with the total carotenoid concentration (0·58) (P,0·01). Fruit and juice consumption showed higher correlations than vegetables with plasma carotenoid concentration (0·38 and 0·42 v. 0·33) (P,0·01). A total of 82 % of the participants fell into the same or adjacent quartiles when cross-classified by FJV intake and carotenoids biomarkers. WebDASC attained 82 % reporting matches overall and a higher percentage match for reporting fruits compared with beverages. The present study indicated that WebDASC can be used to rank 8-to 11-year-old Danish children according to their intake of FJV overall and at school meals.Key words: Photographic observations: Biomarkers: Validation: Fruits: Vegetables: Carotenoids: Intake A diet high in fruits and vegetables is associated with a decreased risk of many chronic diseases (1) , and therefore several Western countries have recommendations to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. Juice is included in these fruit and vegetable recommendations, but in restricted quantities, as juices do not offer the same nutritional and health benefits as fresh fruits and vegetables and can lead to excessive energy intake and weight gain due to the higher amount of sugar and energy (2 -4) . Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in children is one of the major issues in the field of dietary interventions (5) . Valid dietary assessment methods are essential for identifying how eating habits change in response to interventions and for identifying the impact of dietary habits on health and weight status. The optimal well-being, development and health for Danish Children through a healthy New Nordic Diet (OPUS) centre * Corresponding author: A. Biltoft-Jensen, fax þ45 3588 7119, email apbj@food.dtu.dk Abbreviations: DANSDA, Danish National Survey of Diet and Physical Activity; FJV, fruits, juice and vegetables; NND, New Nordic Diet; OPUS, optimal wellbeing, development and health fo...

Associations between reported intakes of carotenoid-rich foods and concentrations of carotenoids in plasma: a validation study of a web-based food recall for children and adolescents

“…We argue that these factors in the WebDASH study may have enhanced the participants' abilities to remember and register the fruits and vegetables they ate, and thus increased the recording accuracy of these foods, compared with our study. Furthermore, in the study of Biltoft-Jensen et al it is stated as a limitation that their sample had little ethnic, social and cultural diversity (6) ; this was not the case in our study, which had more ethnic diversity than in the general population. This might explain part of the discrepancy between the studies.…”

“…age group has used biomarkers for fruit and vegetable consumption as the reference method (6) . Biltoft-Jensen et al validated the Danish version of the WebFR, the WebDASH, using plasma carotenoid concentrations and compared them with the estimated intakes of carotenoids from foods and total intakes of food groups.…”

Validity of WebCAAFE questionnaire for assessment of schoolchildren’s dietary compliance with Brazilian Food Guidelines

“…The findings of the present study add to previous WebCAAFE validation study results (22) and to other web-based 24 h recall/record validation studies in children using observation during school meals as a reference method (13,14,(16)(17)(18) .…”

“…In the present study, about a quarter of the children analysed were 7-8 years old, about 20 % had parents with at most elementary school education and a further 20 % had parents with high school education (Table 1). Compared with aforementioned validation studies regarding other web-based food questionnaires (13,14,18) , the social and educational background of the WebCAAFE respondents was considerably lower. The high percentage bias for fish/sea products, meats, fruits and beans may have occurred because the food images in the WebCAAFE screen for these items did not match the way children often eat (Fig.…”

“…The present study used Poisson regression regularly applied to count outcomes such as the number of food items consumed per day, with logarithmic transformation of the counts and population variance assumed to equal the mean consumption, both of which take into account the peculiarities of the measurement error structure in diet validation (32) . The WebCAAFE presents a different framework from other web-based questionnaires (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) mainly because it was formulated as a previous-day recall of frequency of intake of thirty-two food items in each of six daily eating events, so the dietary assessment does not involve a fully quantified 24 h recall of foods and beverages. The cognitive task required for estimating portion size, frequency and averaging may not be compatible with the perceptual and conceptual capacities of children who have not reached the stage of abstract reasoning at approximately 10-11 years of age (26,27,29) .…”