Number of 24-Hour Diet Recalls Needed to Estimate Energy Intake

Abstract

Purpose-Twenty-four-hour diet recall interviews (24HRs) are used to assess diet and to validate other diet assessment instruments. Therefore it is important to know how many 24HRs are required to describe an individual's intake.Method-Seventy-nine middle-aged white women completed seven 24HRs over a 14-day period, during which energy expenditure (EE) was determined by the doubly labeled water method (DLW). Mean daily intakes were compared to DLW-derived EE using paired t tests. Linear mixed models were used to evaluate the effect of call sequence and day of the week on 24HR-derived energy intake while adjusting for education, relative body weight, social desirability, and an interaction between call sequence and social desirability.Results-Mean EE from DLW was 2115 kcal/day. Adjusted 24HR-derived energy intake was lowest at call 1 (1501 kcal/day); significantly higher energy intake was observed at calls 2 and 3 (2246 and 2315 kcal/day, respectively). Energy intake on Friday was significantly lower than on Sunday. Averaging energy intake from the first two calls better approximated true energy expenditure than did the first call, and averaging the first three calls further improved the estimate (p = 0.02 for both comparisons). Additional calls did not improve estimation.Conclusions-Energy intake is underreported on the first 24HR. Three 24HRs appear optimal for estimating energy intake.

Association between dietary scores and 13-year weight change and obesity risk in a French prospective cohort

“…Moreover, the quality of dietary and anthropometric data is high, as dietary exposure was measured by repeated (at least three) 24-h records, which are known to provide good estimate of intake at the individual level 43 and account for seasonal and weekly variability. Moreover, weight and height were not self-reported, but were measured during the clinical examinations, strengthening their accuracy.…”

The number of 24 h dietary recalls using the US Department of Agriculture's automated multiple-pass method required to estimate nutrient intake in overweight and obese adults

“…In one study of twenty-nine adults who measured and recorded their food intake daily for 1 year, Basiotis et al (6) reported that three dietary records were sufficient to estimate energy intake for both men and women. Others have suggested that three 24 h dietary recalls were best for estimating energy intake in normalweight women (9) . The number of days that dietary intake should be collected can be determined by estimating within-subject variance, which is the day-to-day variation in each individual's nutrient intake, and between-subject variance, which is the extent that individuals' nutrient intake varies from one another (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) .…”

Dietary intakes assessed by 24-h recalls in peri-urban African adolescents: validity of energy intake compared with estimated energy expenditure

“…These benefits make the 24-h recall a suitable DA method for peri-urban South African adolescents. The literature (Ma et al, 2009), however, indicates that a single 24-h recall does not offer a true reflection of usual dietary intake. Furthermore, unless the specific 24 h-recall instrument and the number and period of administrations Validity of multiple 24-h recalls of adolescents D Rankin et al required by the study design have been tested for validity, the usefulness of the resultant dietary intake data may be questionable.…”

“…Despite the well-known limitation that dietary intake data from single 24-h recalls are not representative of usual diet (Gibson, 2005;Ma et al, 2009), only one study has reported on the relative validity of the 24-h recall used among South African adolescents (Kruger et al, 2006).…”