How dietary intake has been assessed in African countries? A systematic review

Dietary patterns are often considered as one of the main causes of non-communicable diseases worldwide. It is of utmost importance to study dietary habits in developing countries since this work is scarce.

To summarize the most recent research conducted in this field in African countries, namely the most used methodologies and tools.

A systematic review was conducted on MEDLINE®/PubMed, aiming to identify scientific publications focused on studies of dietary intake of different African populations, in a ten-year period. Papers not written in English/Portuguese/Spanish, studies developed among African people but not developed in African countries, studies aiming to assess a particular nutrient/specific food/food toxin and studies that assessed dietary intake among children were excluded.

Out of 99 included studies, the 24-hour recall and the food-frequency questionnaire were the most used dietary intake assessment tools, used to assess diet at an individual level. It was also observed that often country-unspecific food composition databases are used, and the methodologies employed are poorly validated and standardized.

There is an emergent need to improve the existing food databases by updating food data and to develop suitable country-specific databases for those that do not have their own food composition table.