Number of days needed to assess energy and nutrient intake in infants and young children between 6 months and 2 years of age

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the minimum number of days of recorded dietary intake needed to place infants and young children into thirds of a population distribution with an acceptable degree of accuracy. Design: Dietary intake data collected from 5-day weighed food records for 72 infants and young children up to 2 y of age, collected during a cross-sectional study, were analysed to estimate the number of recording days necessary to assess intake of energy and 10 nutrients. Setting: Community study among healthy infants and children. Subjects: Parents attended recruitment sessions in local community areas. In total, 72 subjects were entered into the study and all completed the 5-day dietary assessment period. Interventions: A 5-day weighed record of children's dietary intake was made by the parents or regular carer. Results: Mean within subject standard deviations were smaller than mean between subject standard deviations with respect to energy (778 vs 824 kJ/day), macronutrient subclasses: protein (8 vs 9.4 g/day); fat (9 vs 10 g/day); and carbohydrate (26 vs 29 g/ day) and for specific micronutrients: calcium (163 vs 236 mg/day); phosphorus (143 vs 270 mg/day); magnesium (25 vs 43 mg/ day); iron (2 vs 3 mg/day); zinc (1 vs 1.3 mg/day); ascorbic acid (27 vs 64 mg/day) and retinol equivalents (281 vs 424 mg/day). Estimated number of days of food records necessary to assess intake of energy, protein, fat and carbohydrate with acceptable degree of accuracy were 5,4,4 and 3, respectively. For all the micronutrients included in this analysis 2 days of recording were necessary. Conclusion: Compared with adults and older children, fewer days are needed to classify this age group into thirds of the distribution with an acceptable degree of accuracy according to intake of energy and specific nutrients.

Variance sources and ratios to estimate energy and nutrient intakes in a sample of adolescents from public schools, Natal, Brazil

“…The interpersonal variance found by the present study was the greatest source of nutrient intake variance, resulting in a VR of less than 1 and corroborating the findings of Laningan et al 1 in children and Herbert et al 24 in adults. The lack of variation in habitual dietary intake can be attributed to the low purchasing power and low education levels of the study population.…”

“…Assessing habitual food intake is complex because it involves factors related to daily intake variability, information reliability and identification of under-or overreporting [1][2][3] . Food intake and variance estimates differ among populations, genders, age groups and cultures 4 .…”

Validation of a pre-coded food record for infants and young children

“…Several studies of estimated food records in children and adolescents have shown an underestimation of food intake by up to 35% (Bandini et al, 1997;Champagne et al, 1998;Singh et al, 2009). However, only little research on the validation of dietary intake methodology in infants and young children exists (Davies et al, 1994;Lanigan et al, 2004;Burrows et al, 2010).…”

Sources of variation in energy and nutrient intakes among children from six to thirty months old in a population-based study

“…Although different studies have characterized within-and between-person variance for energy and nutrient intakes in adults 10,11 very little information is available for children 12,13 , especially in Brazil. In addition, most studies of the child population are usually held in public health institutions and at nursery schools 14,15,16,17,18 and few population-based studies have been conducted in recent years 19,20,21,22 .…”