Background We sought to compare the means energy, energy contribution from macronutrients, and selected nutrients intakes of patients with type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) between telephone interviews and a face-to-face interview in the dietary intake assessment by the 24-hour recall. Methods Sixty-eight females with T2DM aged 50–55 years enrolled randomly in a descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study from the diabetic clinic of Shahid Bahonar. The patients completed three consecutive 24-hour dietary recalls. The first interview was face-to-face, and the subsequent 2 recalls were conducted by telephone. Results There were significant differences between the mean intakes energy and 18 selected nutrients calculated using two telephone interviews together versus all three interviews (P. values from 0.027 until < 0.001). There were significant differences between the mean intakes energy and 18 selected nutrients calculated using a face-to-face interview versus all three interviews (P. values from 0.027 until < 0.001). There were no significant differences between the mean intakes energy and 18 selected nutrients calculated using two telephone interviews. However, there were significant differences between the mean intakes energy and 18 selected nutrients calculated using face-to-face interview versus two telephone interviews together (P. values from 0.031 until < 0.001). Conclusions We concluded that the telephone approach could not be considered as an alternative to the face-to-face approach for collecting dietary data by the 24-hour dietary recall method as an open-ended assessment. Each of the telephone interviews versus face-to-face interview underreporting and underestimate the total energy and nutrients intakes in the 24-hour dietary recall.

Background: COVID-19 pandemic has caused limitations, in patients’ accessibility in clinical and research settings. We sought whether telenutrition could be applied interchangeably with face-to-face interview for dietary intake assessment by 24-hour recall in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Sixty-eight females with T2DM aged 50-55 years were enrolled randomly in a descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study. The patients completed three consecutive 24-hour dietary recalls. The first one was a face-to-face interview, and the subsequent two recalls were conducted by telephone call. The total energy and 18 selected nutrients intake were calculated for the three interviews. Results: The mean (±SD) age of participants was 53.97±2.14 years. The face-to-face interview resulted in significantly higher total energy and 18 selected nutrients intake than the two telenutrition interviews (P value range: 0.031 - 0.001). No significant differences were found between the data provided from the two telenutrition interviews. Conclusion: Telenutrition underreports and underestimates the total energy and nutrient intakes compared with the face-to-face interview in the 24-hour dietary recall. Therefore, it cannot be recommended to be applied interchangeably with a face-to-face interview for dietary intake assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in patients whose nutrition assessment is of clinical importance. A combination of the two methods using new communication applications (e.g. WhatsApp) may cover the defects of telenutrition method.