Abstract
My E-Diary for Activities and Lifestyle (MEDAL), a web-based application, was developed to assess the diets of children. This study examined the validity of school recess meals reported by children on MEDAL, using meal photography as the reference. Recess meals were photographed by trained researchers, and food items and portion sizes of recess meals reported on MEDAL were compared to recess meal photos. Validity was assessed by percentages of match, omission and intrusion for food items and percentages of the match, underestimation and overestimation for portion sizes. The Mann–Whitney test and the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test examined if sex, school and day of recording influenced the validity of food item reporting. We found that participants (n = 33, aged 10–11 years) recalled 60.2% of food items consumed at recess accurately (matches); omissions (24.6%) were more common than intrusions (15.2%). Omissions tended to be side dishes, and intrusions tended to be high-calorie items. Sex, school and day of recording did not influence validity. For food portion sizes, 58.3% of items were accurately reported. Overestimations (33.3%) were more common than underestimations (8.3%). In conclusion, these children were able to report food items consumed during school recess meals using MEDAL, albeit with limitations on the degree of accuracy.
Highlights
IntroductionUnderstanding children’s dietary choices will aid in the development of targeted strategies aimed at fostering healthy dietary habits as they transition into adulthood [1]
This study evaluated the validity of food items consumed during school recess meals reported by 10 to 11 years old children on My E-Diary for Activities and Lifestyle (MEDAL), in reference to recess meal photos captured by a researcher
Categories arranged in descending order of portion matches. This validation study confirmed our hypothesis; we demonstrated that children in Singapore aged 10 to 11-years-old are able to report food items consumed during their school recess using a web-based application (MEDAL), with varying degrees of reporting accuracy
Summary
Understanding children’s dietary choices will aid in the development of targeted strategies aimed at fostering healthy dietary habits as they transition into adulthood [1]. Assessing schoolchildren’s food intake can be challenging. Parents often lack first-hand knowledge of their child’s out-of-home food intake, limiting the accuracy of proxy-food reporting [2]. Traditional pen-and-paper dietary assessment methods such as 24-h recall, food diaries and food frequency questionnaires involve lengthy and extensive interviews or completion of questionnaires, which can be burdensome for children [3] and affect their motivation to complete the assessment, resulting in low compliance
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