The development and evaluation of a novel computer program to assess previous-day dietary and physical activity behaviours in school children: The Synchronised Nutrition and Activity Program^TM(SNAP^TM)

Abstract

Self-report recall questionnaires used to measure physical activity and dietary intake in children can be labour intensive and monotonous and tend to focus on either dietary intake or physical activity. The web-based software, Synchronised Nutrition and Activity Program TM (SNAP TM ), was developed to produce a novel, simple, quick and engaging method of assessing energy balance-related behaviours at a population level, combining principles from new and existing 24 h recall methodologies, set within a user-friendly interface. Dietary intake was measured using counts for twenty-one food groups and physical activity levels were measured in min of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). A combination of the mean difference between methods, type II regression and non-parametric limits of agreement techniques were used to examine the accuracy and precision of SNAP TM . Method comparison analyses demonstrated a good agreement for both dietary intake and physical activity behaviours. For dietary variables, accuracy of SNAP TM (mean difference) was within^1 count for the majority of food groups. The proportion of the sample with between-method agreement within^1 count ranged from 0·40 to 0·99. For min of MVPA, there was no substantial fixed or proportional bias, and a mean difference between methods (SNAP TM -accelerometry) of 29 min. SNAP TM provides a quick, accurate, low-burden, cost-effective and engaging method of assessing energy balance behaviours at a population level. Tools such as SNAP TM , which exploit the popularity, privacy and engagement of the computer interface, and linkages with other datasets, could make a substantial contribution to future public health monitoring and research.Schoolchildren: Diet: Physical activity: Computer programs: Recall As the prevalence of childhood obesity continues to rise in the developed world and countries in transition (1)

Validation and reproducibility of dietary assessment methods in adolescents: a systematic literature review

“…General overview An overview of the retrieved twenty original articles (1,(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31) is shown in Table 1.…”

“…The majority (n 17) (1,(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(22)(23)(24)26,27,(29)(30)(31) of them were identified as studies assessing the validation and reproducibility of FFQ against reference dietary instruments (Table 2), while the remaining three studies considered questionnaires other than FFQ analysed for their validity and reproducibility against different reference methods (21,25,28) ( Table 3). …”

Students’ and teachers’ understanding of the WebCas questionnaire for assessing healthrelated behaviors

“…Results found in focus group studies unanimously corroborate the WebCas in relation to the need of including illustrative images, mainly for types of physical activities, especially regarding body positions: standing up, sitting and lying down 11,26,27 .…”

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

“…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) .…”