The Application of a Handheld Personal Digital Assistant with Camera and Mobile Phone Card (Wellnavi) to the General Population in a Dietary Survey

Abstract

Summary This study was carried out to examine first, the validity of a new dietary assessment method, a handheld personal digital assistant with camera and mobile phone card (Wellnavi), in comparison with a weighed diet record as a reference method and second, the relation between obesity and underreporting in the Wellnavi method in 27 men and 48 women volunteers aged 30-67 y from the general population. On the validity, there were significant correlations (0.32-0.75) between the daily nutrient intakes measured by the Wellnavi method and the weighed diet record method in all the subjects except for some nutrients such as iron, magnesium and vitamin E. Results similar to those from the group of all the subjects were obtained in the men's group and the women's group. In all the subjects and the men's group and the women's group, the differences in the daily nutrient intakes between the two dietary assessment methods were statistically significant. However, good agreement of the differences between the two dietary assessment methods for many daily nutrient intakes was obtained in the nonobese men. The nutrient intakes estimated by the Wellnavi method in all the subjects and the men's group and the women's group were significantly lower than those values estimated by the weighed diet record method except for some nutrients such as sodium, iron and fat-soluble vitamins. With respect to the relation between obesity and underreporting, the obesity in women was not a factor of underreporting in the Wellnavi method, but the presence of this relation was undeniable in the obese men. The reason why the values of daily nutrient intakes in the Wellnavi method were lower than those estimated by the weighed diet record method seemed to be the low quality of the digital photo of the Wellnavi instrument. By improving the digital photo quality of this instrument, the Wellnavi method could become a useful new dietary assessment method to get accurate dietary information from people of a wide range of age and occupation, and a wide variety of physical situations of subjects from the general population. Key Words dietary survey, mobile phone card, weighed diet record method, validity, general population It has been clarified in several nutritional epidemiologic studies that there is a close relationship between daily nutrient intakes and lifestyle-related disorders ( 1 ). The dietary assessment method is indispensable in order to survey accurately daily nutrient intakes of a target population attending nutrition counseling. It is also for the sake of prevention of lifestyle-related disorders and for the development of research in nutrition science. The 24-h dietary recall, weighed diet record and food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) are widely used for the collection of dietary information on names of foods and amounts consumed by an individual ( 2 ). The accuracy of the daily nutrient intakes obtained from the 24-h dietary recall method is dependent on the ability of interviewer and the respondents' memory.As the weighed diet record...

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