A changing landscape: web-based methods for dietary assessment in adolescents

Area of Science:

• Nutrition Science
• Adolescent Health
• Digital Health Technologies

Background:

• Adolescent dietary intake significantly impacts health and well-being.
• Assessing adolescent diets is complex and prone to error.
• Technology offers a promising solution to improve dietary assessment accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review practical considerations for web-based dietary assessment methods in adolescents.
• To evaluate recent evidence on the validity and implications of these methods.
• To address the lack of reviews specific to adolescent dietary assessment technology.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature on web-based dietary assessment tools.
• Analysis of available web-based applications (apps) for dietary assessment.
• Evaluation of validity and reliability data for adolescent populations.

Main Results:

• Numerous valid and reliable web-based dietary assessment methods exist for adolescents.
• These methods include food records, 24-hour dietary recalls, and food frequency questionnaires.
• Both native and web-based applications are available.

Conclusions:

• Web-based dietary assessment is efficient, cost-effective, and practical.
• These methods are less burdensome and reduce errors/bias in data collection.
• Adolescents' technological familiarity makes these tools a preferred option.