Inter‐ and intra‐rater reliability of digitally captured images of plate waste

Abstract

AbstractAimDigital intake estimation has been shown to be strongly correlated with real‐time visual estimation of dietary intake in cafeterias and long term care settings. The objectives of the present study were to estimate intra‐ and interrater agreement for digitally captured plate waste in hospitalised adults.MethodsLunch plates (n = 106) of hospitalised adults were photographed immediately prior to tray collection. Two raters used the modified Comstock method to assess food waste from each of the digital images. Additionally, a randomly selected subset of photographs was re‐estimated 72 hours following the first estimation. Inter‐ and intrarater reliability were estimated by calculating the intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC).ResultsIn the total population, the ICC for interrater reliability was 0.95 (95% CI 0.93–0.97, P < 0.0001) for the entire meal, 0.94 (95% CI 0.9–0.96, P < 0.0001) for vegetables, 0.96 (95% CI 0.9–0.96, P < 0.0001) for starch and 0.96 (95% CI 0.94–0.97, P < 0.0001) for the main course. ICC for intrarater reliability was 0.99 (95% CI 0.97–1.0, P < 0.0001) for the entire meal, 0.95 (95% CI 0.86–0.98, P < 0.0001) for vegetables, 0.97 (95% CI 0.92–0.99, P < 0.0001) for starch and 0.99 (0.98–1.0, P < 0.0001) for the main course. Findings were similar for regular diets and somewhat weaker for soft diets.ConclusionsDietary intake estimated from digital images has a high degree of both inter‐ and intrarater reliability in hospitalised patient populations.