Dietary assessment methods used for low-income populations in food consumption surveys: a literature review

Abstract

In order to assess nutritional adequacy, reliable estimates of nutrient intake are required. Specifically, the EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned (EURRECA) Network of Excellence needs clear guidelines on methods suitable for assessing micronutrient intakes among vulnerable population groups. The objective of this project was to collect, evaluate data and review the suitability of methods used to assess dietary intake of low-income groups across Europe. A comprehensive literature review methodology was employed, which involved structured search MEDLINE, from 1990 to 2008, on (nutrient intake methods) and (validity terms) and (human studies) and finally (low-income terms). In addition, manual searches were conducted for published books and national studies. Seven studies satisfied the selection criteria for inclusion in the review in which four dietary intake methods had been described and validated. Three other studies found in the grey literature used similar methods. Only one study tested a variety of methods to assess reliability and the method preferred by those having low incomes. Preferred methods were 24 h recalls and a FFQ which, compared with the weighed inventory, also yielded higher estimates of energy and nutrient intakes. Many of the methods used in low-income populations have not been subjected to evaluation and consequently may not demonstrate sensitivity and/or specificity when used in this population. Based on one study only, four multiple-pass 24 h recalls are recommended as the most appropriate method for the evaluation of nutritional adequacy in low-income households.Dietary intake methods: Socio-economic status: Low-income population Adequate and reliable assessment of dietary intake in nutritional research is key when attempting to understand dietary profiles linked to living conditions such as low income. There are many retrospective (24 h recalls, dietary history method and FFQ) and prospective (food records over 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 d, duplicate portions) intake methods (1)

Identifying Critical Nutrient Intake in Groups at Risk of Poverty in Europe: The CHANCE Project Approach

“…Our electronic search strategy employed a comprehensive list of search terms for “income”, and they were previously used in dietary research among low-income groups within the EURRECA project [40,41]. However, the limitation of our search strategy is that we focused on two electronic bibliographic databases and only on articles published in the English language.…”

Assessing the validity of a food frequency questionnaire among low-income women in São Paulo, southeastern Brazil

“…Subsequently, to examine the correlation due to total energy intake we calculate energy-adjusted nutrient intake, which indicate the nutrient composition of the diet by regressing nutrient intake on total energy 7 . As a measure of longterm reliability, Pearson intra-class correlation coefficients were used to compare the two FFQs for both unadjusted and energy-adjusted nutrients 3 . The validity of the FFQ was evaluated by comparing mean nutrient intake data obtained from FFQ2 with mean nutrient intake data obtained from three dietary recalls.…”

“…A limited number of validation studies of FFQ have been conducted in developing countries. People from low-income households have less nutritionally adequate diets, living for long periods of time on limited incomes, with lower literacy, numerical and language skills 3 . Issues such as questionnaire format, participant motivation, perceived study burden, and repeated administration of the same instrument can each influence our ability to gather reliable and valid self-report dietary intake data 4 .…”

“…Results usually show a good agreement in test-retest for foods and nutrients, but with high variability in the dietary intake 5 . Thus, rather than evaluating the validity of a questionnaire against a "gold standard", it has been discussed whether and by how much the measurement characteristics of dietary assessment instruments differ, especially in research designed to address dietary ARTIGO ARTICLE quality, food inequality or diet as part of health inequalities 3 .…”

Subjective Evidence Based Ethnography: Method and Applications

“…People's memory of their actions is the main challenge of currently used dietary assessment methods including food diaries, 24-hour recalls and food frequency questionnaires (Vucic et al, 2009). Quantitative studies provide numbers, but the nature of the mechanisms of how exactly the effects appear remains invisible; also the possible biases behind the data collected are difficult to assess.…”