Food on Film: Pilot Test of an Innovative Method for Recording Food Intake of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities Living in the Community

Abstract

Background Adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities need dietary monitoring but are not likely to be able to provide accurate dietary intake data via traditional methods. Pilot study efforts to meet their support needs with a novel and practical approach to dietary intake data collection are described in this brief report.Materials and Method Still photography kits were used by nine adult volunteer participants with intellectual disabilities who lived in group homes or in semi‐independent living arrangements to capture images of the food they consumed over 24 h.Results Use of photographs during dietary intake interviews improved the reliability of the participants’ responses. Mean reliability ratings improved from ‘Indiscernible/Poor’ (mean range 1.0–1.7) to ‘Good/Excellent’ (mean range 3.6–5.0).Conclusions Our preliminary data imply that Food on Film is an effective and appropriate tool for use in community settings and warrants further testing.