Dietary Assessment with a Wearable Camera among Children: Feasibility and Intercoder Reliability

Area of Science:

• Nutrition Science
• Biomedical Engineering
• Public Health

Background:

• The eButton is a multisensor device designed for passive dietary intake assessment in children.
• It utilizes a chest-worn camera to capture daily images of the child's food consumption environment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility of the eButton for dietary intake assessment.
• To determine the intercoder reliability of dietary intake data collected using the eButton.

Main Methods:

• Thirty children (9-13 years) wore the eButton for two days to capture dietary images.
• Two dietitians independently analyzed images to identify food items and portion sizes.
• Child-parent dyads participated in verification interviews to validate dietitian assessments.

Main Results:

• Dietitians achieved 60.5% agreement on food identity, with disagreements on 28.6%.
• Post-interview, agreement with child-parent dyads improved to 77.0% for food identity.
• Caloric intake estimates showed significant differences between dietitians and child-parent dyads on day 2.

Conclusions:

• The eButton shows potential for passive dietary assessment, with an initial intercoder reliability of ICC=0.67.
• Verification interviews are crucial for ensuring completeness and accuracy of dietary estimates.
• Further technological development and training are recommended to address feasibility challenges.