METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF NEW WEBBASED TECHNOLOGIES FOR ASSESSING DIETARY INTAKE IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

• Published in: Annals of nutrition and metabolism 2017-10, Vol.71 (Suppl. 2), p.679
• Main Authors: Perazi, Fernanda, Vieira, Francilene Gracieli Kunradi, Pereira, Luciana Jeremias, Di Pietro, Patrícia Faria, Hinnig, Patricia de Fragas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescents; Children; Children & youth; Diet; Dietary intake; Intrusion; Reproducibility; Teenagers
• ISSN: 0250-6807; 1421-9697
• DOI: 10.1159/000480486

Background and objectives: New web-based technologies have been developed in order to contribute for the improvement of dietary intake evaluation of children and adolescents. To review the characteristics of studies that developed web-based questionnaires for assessing dietary intake in children and adolescents. Methods: questionnaires for assessing dietary intake in children and adolescents. Methods: Results: Twelve web-based questionnaires were found. Eight of them were developed for children and adolescents from European countries, two in Brazil, and two in the United States (n=2). Regarding the population age, 58.3% of the questionnaires were developed for children aged 7 to 10. Only one questionnaire developed in Brazil evaluated the qualitative dietary intake. All questionnaires were based on 24-hour recall from the previous day and were self-administered. Four instruments provided an Avatar to assist the respondent with completing the questionnaire, and five presented six eating events. Most of the questionnaires (90.9%) had images or photographs of portions size in order to assist the quantity of food reported. Of the 12 studies, 11 published results of validity and 2 of reproducibility. Regarding the reference methods for validity, half of the studies used direct observation. The percentage of agreement between the test questionnaire and the reference method ranged from 37% to 90%. Intrusion rates (false positives) ranged from 5% to 35%, and omission rates (false negatives) from 3% to 35%. Conclusions: There are still few published studies that have developed web-based questionnaires for assessing dietary in children and adolescents. There is a wide variation in the results of agreement when compared the web-based questionnaires with the reference method, and few studies presented results of reproducibility.