Fourth-grade Children are Less Accurate in Reporting School Breakfast than School Lunch during 24-Hour Dietary Recalls

• Published in: Journal of nutrition education and behavior 2007-05, Vol.39 (3), p.126-133
• Main Authors: Baxter, Suzanne Domel, PhD, RD, FADA, Royer, Julie A., MSPH, Hardin, James W., PhD, Guinn, Caroline H., RD, Smith, Albert F., PhD, MS
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accuracy; Child; Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; children; Cross-Over Studies; dietary recalls; Eating - psychology; Elementary school students; Female; Food; Food Services; Gastroenterology and Hepatology; Grade 4; Humans; Internal Medicine; Interviews as Topic; Linear Models; Male; Mental Recall; Nutrition Surveys; Observation; Outcome Measures; Recall; reporting accuracy; Reproducibility of Results; school breakfast; School breakfast programs; school children; school lunch; School lunches; Schools; Sensitivity and Specificity; Sex Factors; Students - psychology; Time Factors; validation
• ISSN: 1499-4046; 1878-2620; 1708-8259
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jneb.2006.12.014

Abstract Objective To compare reporting accuracy for breakfast and lunch in 2 studies. Design Children were observed eating school meals and interviewed the following morning about the previous day. In Study 1, 104 children were each interviewed 1 to 3 times with ≥25 days separating any 2 interviews. In Study 2, 121 children were each interviewed once in forward (morning-to-evening) and once in reverse (evening-to-morning) order, with these interviews separated by ≥29 days. Setting 12 schools. Participants Fourth-grade children. Main Outcome Measures For each meal, food-item variables (observed number, reported number, omission rate, intrusion rate, total inaccuracy) and kcal variables (observed, reported, correspondence rate, inflation ratio). Analysis General linear mixed models. Results For each study, observed and reported numbers of items and kcal, and correspondence rate (reporting accuracy), were greater for lunch than for breakfast; omission rate, intrusion rate, and inflation ratio (measures of reporting error) were greater for breakfast than for lunch. In Study 1, for each meal over interviews, total inaccuracy decreased and correspondence rate increased. In Study 2, for each meal for boys for reverse and for girls for forward order, omission rate was lower and correspondence rate was higher. Conclusions and Implications Breakfast was reported less accurately than lunch. Despite improvement over interviews (Study 1) and differences for order x sex (Study 2), reporting accuracy was low for breakfast and lunch.