Simulated adaptations to an adult dietary self-report tool to accommodate children: impact on nutrient estimates

To simulate the effect of child-friendly (CF) adaptations of the National Cancer Institute's Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour Dietary Recall (ASA24) on estimates of nutrient intake.

One hundred twenty children, 8-13 years old, entered their previous day's intake using the ASA24 and completed an interviewer-administered recall using the Nutrition Data System for Research (NDSR). Based on a hypothesis that proposed adaptations to the ASA24 will not significantly affect mean nutrient estimates, ASA24 data were manipulated postadministration to simulate a CF version in which 2 categories of data collection were removed: (1) foods not likely to be consumed by children (45%) based on previous analyses of national dietary data and (2) food detail questions (probes) to which children are unlikely to know the answers (46%), based on our experience.

Mean estimates of select nutrients between the beta version of ASA24 and the simulated CF recall showed no significant differences, indicating that the food and probe elimination did not significantly affect results. However, a comparison of total sugar and vitamin C assessments between the original ASA24, the CF version, and NDSR showed that the daily nutrient totals for both nutrients were significantly higher in the self-administered methods (both ASA24 and CF version) than in NDSR (interviewer-administered), which warrants a review of different methods for obtaining information about foods that are sources of these nutrients.

The simulation of CF adaptations showed that it is feasible to implement, thereby reducing CF response burden without significantly affecting the results.