DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW TOOL FOR DIETARY DATA COLLECTION: SER-24H, SOFTWARE FOR 24 HOURS RECALL

• Published in: Annals of nutrition and metabolism 2017-10, Vol.71 (Suppl. 2), p.1123
• Main Authors: Dourado, Daiana Quintiliano Scarpelli, Arroyo, Angela Martínez, Jara, Macarena, Cornejo, Catalina, Avendaño, Ramon, Scalabrino, Ana Pereira, Jedlicki, Marcela Reyes
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Beverages; Computer programs; Data collection; Diet; Food; Food composition; Food groups; Food packaging; Food selection; Government agencies; Meals; Nutrient content; Nutrients; Nutrition; Packaged food; Software; Software development tools
• ISSN: 0250-6807; 1421-9697
• DOI: 10.1159/000480486

Background and objectives: Analyzing 24-h dietary recalls involves several challenges such as standardized data collection, conversion of household measures, linkage of foods/beverages with nutrient content data, among others. There is no available Software for dietary data collection customized to Chilean needs. Objective: To report the development of the software for dietary data collection "SER-24h" (Software de Encuestas Recordatorio 24 horas). Methods: The software development started in 2015 and it was led by CEPOC at INTA, University of Chile. We build on the dietary data collected on 24-h dietary recalls since 2012. We identified foods, beverages and recipes to organize the food database. The recipes were disaggregated in ingredients. The National Nutrient Database Standard Reference of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was used as nutrient content data. We linked our data to the USDA, assuming a concordance between 80 and 120% of energy and macronutrients, based on the nutrition facts of packaged foods and Chilean food composition data. A private company (CITEC®) provided technological support and generated the software. Results: SER-24h includes a questionnaire designed for collecting interviewer 24-h dietary recalls using the "Automated Multiple-Pass Method". Foods/beverages are selected from a list of from 4682 options, with specific portion sizes for each one; the software allows to add new foods/beverages or portion sizes if needed. Recipes can be also selected from the ones available (n=838) or added if necessary. SER-24h provides reports with nutrient information at the food/beverage level, origin from the food or preparation, meal time, location and activities during the meals. The program was ready to collect data after 16 months of preparation and it can be executed online or offline from any operating system previously authorized by the webmaster. Conclusions: The new software allows collecting standardized dietary information and it links it with nutrient content. As far as we know, SER-24h is the only Chilean dietary software which outputs provide dietary analyses discriminating different sources of nutrients (i.e. at the level of food groups, meals, time of the day, or others). The use of this tool should increase our scarce knowledge on local dietary patterns.