Development of a field-friendly automated dietary assessment tool and nutrient database for India

Abstract

Studies of diet and disease risk in India and among other Asian-Indian populations are hindered by the need for a comprehensive dietary assessment tool to capture data on the wide variety of food and nutrient intakes across different regions and ethnic groups. The nutritional component of the India Health Study, a multicentre pilot cohort study, included 3908 men and women, aged 35–69 years, residing in three regions of India (New Delhi in the north, Mumbai in the west and Trivandrum in the south). We developed a computer-based, interviewer-administered dietary assessment software known as the ‘NINA-DISH (New Interactive Nutrition Assistant – Diet in India Study of Health)’, which consisted of four sections: (1) a diet history questionnaire with defined questions on frequency and portion size; (2) an open-ended section for each mealtime; (3) a food-preparer questionnaire; (4) a 24 h dietary recall. Using the preferred meal-based approach, frequency of intake and portion size were recorded and linked to a nutrient database that we developed and modified from a set of existing international databases containing data on Indian foods and recipes. The NINA-DISH software was designed to be easily adaptable and was well accepted by the interviewers and participants in the field. A predominant three-meal eating pattern emerged; however, patterns in the number of foods reported and the primary contributors to macro- and micronutrient intakes differed by region and demographic factors. The newly developed NINA-DISH software provides a much-needed tool for measuring diet and nutrient profiles across the diverse populations of India with the potential for application in other South Asian populations living throughout the world.

Overcoming Dietary Assessment Challenges in Low-Income Countries: Technological Solutions Proposed by the International Dietary Data Expansion (INDDEX) Project

“…Yet, nearly all existing electronic 24HR data collection platforms were designed for use in high-income countries [19,20]. Though a handful of automated data collection tools have been used to collect dietary data in resource constrained contexts, for example, in India and Zambia, these were designed for specific research purposes and settings only, and cannot be adapted to other geographic locations [21,22]. …”

“…The objective of the review was to assess the landscape of available 24HR platforms and determine their suitability for use in LIC contexts. The systematic literature review conducted by the authors as well as a more recently conducted review by Timon et al [20] identified a number of computer-based and web-based 24HR platforms that have been developed for dietary assessment [14,15,19,21,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61]. As mentioned previously, the majority of 24HR platforms have been developed for use in high-income countries in North America and Europe.…”

Ischaemic Heart Disease–Related Knowledge, Behaviours, and Beliefs of Indo-Canadians and Euro-Canadians: Implications for Physical Therapists

“…[15][16][17][18] Indian diets are being investigated, given the suspicion that they have become high in carbohydrates and saturated fats and deficient in high-quality protein and antioxidants, thus contributing to the increased prevalence of lifestyle-related conditions. 19 Inadequate knowledge of nutrition and high-fat cooking methods using butter, margarine, ghee (clarified butter), eggs and milk 18,20,21 are health concerns for Indian immigrants. 22 If such distinctions with respect to diet and exercise are supported in the IC community of the BC Lower Mainland, cultural theory may help to inform the tailoring of health education strategies related to healthy lifestyle choices to meet diverse cultural needs.…”

A review of the design and validation of web- and computer-based 24-h dietary recall tools

“…In general, the applications are based on the multi-pass approach described by Moshfegh et al (30) . The applications are either self-administered, whereby a participant completes the recall in the absence of a researcher (5,(31)(32)(33) , or interviewer administered, where the interviewer uses the application to collect/analyse dietary recall data in the presence of a participant (26,28,34,35) . The software guides and prompts the participant/interviewer to recall and record food and drink consumed in the previous day (24 h).…”