Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Apr 14;115(7):1301-15.
doi: 10.1017/S0007114515005413. Epub 2016 Feb 11.

Children's school-breakfast reports and school-lunch reports (in 24-h dietary recalls): conventional and reporting-error-sensitive measures show inconsistent accuracy results for retention interval and breakfast location

Suzanne D Baxter  1 , Caroline H Guinn  1 , Albert F Smith  2 , David B Hitchcock  3 , Julie A Royer  1 , Megan P Puryear  1 , Kathleen L Collins  1 , Alyssa L Smith  1
Affiliations

Children's school-breakfast reports and school-lunch reports (in 24-h dietary recalls): conventional and reporting-error-sensitive measures show inconsistent accuracy results for retention interval and breakfast location

Suzanne D Baxter et al. Br J Nutr. .

Abstract

Validation-study data were analysed to investigate retention interval (RI) and prompt effects on the accuracy of fourth-grade children's reports of school-breakfast and school-lunch (in 24-h recalls), and the accuracy of school-breakfast reports by breakfast location (classroom; cafeteria). Randomly selected fourth-grade children at ten schools in four districts were observed eating school-provided breakfast and lunch, and were interviewed under one of eight conditions created by crossing two RIs ('short'--prior-24-hour recall obtained in the afternoon and 'long'--previous-day recall obtained in the morning) with four prompts ('forward'--distant to recent, 'meal name'--breakfast, etc., 'open'--no instructions, and 'reverse'--recent to distant). Each condition had sixty children (half were girls). Of 480 children, 355 and 409 reported meals satisfying criteria for reports of school-breakfast and school-lunch, respectively. For breakfast and lunch separately, a conventional measure--report rate--and reporting-error-sensitive measures--correspondence rate and inflation ratio--were calculated for energy per meal-reporting child. Correspondence rate and inflation ratio--but not report rate--showed better accuracy for school-breakfast and school-lunch reports with the short RI than with the long RI; this pattern was not found for some prompts for each sex. Correspondence rate and inflation ratio showed better school-breakfast report accuracy for the classroom than for cafeteria location for each prompt, but report rate showed the opposite. For each RI, correspondence rate and inflation ratio showed better accuracy for lunch than for breakfast, but report rate showed the opposite. When choosing RI and prompts for recalls, researchers and practitioners should select a short RI to maximise accuracy. Recommendations for prompt selections are less clear. As report rates distort validation-study accuracy conclusions, reporting-error-sensitive measures are recommended.

Keywords: 24hDR 24-h dietary recall; Breakfast; Children; Dietary recalls; Lunch; RI retention interval; Schools.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

SD Baxter’s current and previous research has been funded by competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health as well as the United States Department of Agriculture. She has served as a grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is on the Board of Editors for the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. AF Smith’s research has been funded externally by competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health. DB Hitchcock’s research has been funded by the South Carolina Department of Education and the University of South Carolina Research and Productivity Program. CH Guinn, JA Royer, MP Puryear, KL Collins, and AL Smith have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Breakfast correspondence rate and breakfast inflation ratio, each for the two-way RI × prompt interaction
The heights of the bars represent averages (per RI-prompt-sex combination) of the correspondence rate subtracted from 100 (top row) and of inflation ratio (bottom row), so that in all cases lower heights represent better accuracy. Dark bars are for the short RI and light bars for the long RI; the four categories along the horizontal axis are the four prompts. (RI, retention interval)
Figure 2
Figure 2. Lunch correspondence rate and breakfast inflation ratio, each for the two-way RI × prompt interaction
The heights of the bars represent averages (per RI-prompt-sex combination) of the correspondence rate subtracted from 100 (top row) and of inflation ratio (bottom row), so that in all cases lower heights represent better accuracy. Dark bars are for the short RI and light bars for the long RI; the four categories along the horizontal axis are the four prompts. (RI, retention interval)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. The Food Assistance Landscape: FY 2014 Annual Report. [accessed December 2015];Economic Information Bulletin No. EIB-137. http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib-economic-information-bulletin/e....
    1. US Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Research, Nutrition, and Analysis. [accessed December 2015];School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study-III: Volume II: Student Participation and Dietary Intakes. Report No. CN-07-SNDA-III. http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/SNDAIII-Vol2.pdf.
    1. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Nutrition guidance for healthy children ages 2 to 11 years. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2014;114:1257–1276. - PubMed
    1. American Dietetic Association. Position of the American Dietetic Association: Local support for nutrition integrity in schools. J Am Diet Assoc. 2010;110:1244–1254. - PubMed
    1. American Dietetic Association, School Nutrition Association, Society for Nutrition Education. Position of the American Dietetic Association, School Nutrition Association, and Society for Nutrition Education: Comprehensive School Nutrition Services. J Am Diet Assoc. 2010;110:1738–1749. - PubMed

Publication types