Dietary assessment in Asian children--a comparison of the weighed inventory and diet history methods

A cross-sectional study of the dietary intake of Indo-Asian children, in Sheffield, aged 4-40 months, was carried out during a 1 year period. Weighed dietary inventories (facilitated by use of the PETRA electronic recording scale) and diet histories were completed, and analysis was carried out on the records of 117 children. This number is equivalent to a quarter of the estimated target population and 53% of those approached. The diet history method gave higher estimates of the dietary intake of most nutrients than the weighed inventory method (Wilcoxon's rank sum method), the differences represented 7%, 9%, 3%, 9% and 6% of the mean intakes of energy, protein, fat, iron and vitamin C respectively, and were significant for energy, protein and iron. Analysed by age group, differences were significant for energy at 12 to < 18 months; for iron at 6 to < 12 months and 12 to < 18 months; and for vitamin C at < 6 months. There were no significant differences between the estimates of standardised energy or protein intakes, nor in the estimates, by the two methods, of total energy (%) derived from protein or fat. Mean energy intake per kg was equivalent to basal metabolic rate (BMR)* 1.49 by weighed inventory and BMR*1.58 by diet history. Energy intake was expressed as a ratio of age-adjusted 'reference' energy expenditure [A.M. Prentice et al. (1988) The Lancet 2, 1066-1069], the modal ratio energy intake/energy expenditure was 0.75 to < 1.0 for both weighed inventory and diet history methods, suggesting that the observed levels of energy intake were within a reasonable range.