Children's Lunch Recalls: Is Accurate Reporting Of Entree Associated With Increased Overall Accuracy?

Abstract

Since general memory research suggests that more salient (important or prominent) items are more easily remembered, entree may play a key role in self-reports of diet. We hypothesized that children who accurately report entrees on school lunch would report the remaining items with greater accuracy than children who inaccurately report entrees. Fourth-graders from 4 schools of lower to middle socioeconomic status in one school district were randomly selected, observed eating lunch, and interviewed the next morning (n=140; 14 WM, 16 WF, 58 BM, 52 BF). Items were categorized as entree or not entree. Matches (foods observed and reported eaten), omissions (foods observed eaten but not reported) and intrusions (foods not observed eaten but reported) for the non-entree items were tallied, weighted (condiment=0.25, other meal components=0.75), and corresponding rates calculated. If a child had multiple entrees, credit was given for an accurately reported entree only if all entrees reported were matches. Match rate was defined as matches ÷ (matches+omissions) X 100; intrusion rate was defined as intrusions ÷ (matches+intrusions) X 100. A child's accuracy was deemed “acceptable” if the match rate was ⩾90% and the intrusion rate was ≤10%. Data were analyzed for match rate, intrusion rate, and match and intrusion rates combined. Thirty-one children reported entrees inaccurately while 109 children reported entrees accurately. Four of the inaccurate children (12.9%) and 24 of the accurate children (22.0%) had match rates ≥90% (p>.19, Chi-square). Seventeen of the inaccurate children (54.8%) and 74 of the accurate children (67.9%) had intrusion rates ≤10% (p>.12, Chi-square). Two of the inaccurate children (6.5%) and 19 of the accurate children (17.4%) had both match rates ≥90% and intrusion rates ≤10% (p>.10, Chi-square). In conclusion, results from this study failed to show that children who accurately report school lunch entrees report the remaining items with greater accuracy than children who inaccurately report entrees.