Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T20:33:13.978Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The influence of survey duration on estimates of food intakes – relevance for food-based dietary guidelines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

Joyce Lambe  and
John Kearney
Joyce Lambe*
Affiliation:
Institute of European Food Studies, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
John Kearney
Affiliation:
Institute of European Food Studies, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
*
*Corresponding author: Joyce Lambe, fax +353 1 670 9176, email [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Development of food-based dietary guidelines relies on correct identification and interpretation of current dietary intake patterns. The process involves assessing which foods discriminate between those with desirable and undesirable intakes of particular nutrients. It is therefore important that those involved in this task are aware of any source of variability in the underlying food consumption data that cannot be attributed to true differences between individuals. A short survey duration can introduce a high degree of within-person variation and not reflect usual or more long-term food or nutrient intakes. As survey duration increases, the % consumers identified by a survey increases and the intakes among consumers only decrease while the total population intakes do not change. A short survey duration may also lead to misclassification of individuals into high and low consumers. Survey duration is therefore an issue that should be considered in the interpretation of dietary data when developing food-based dietary guidelines.

Keywords

Survey durationFood intakes% Consumers
Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Nutrition , Volume 81 , Issue S1 , June 1999 , pp. S139 - S142
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 1999

References

Basiotis, PP, Welsh, SO, Cronin, FJ, Kelsay, JL & Mertz, W (1987) Number of days of food intake records required to estimate individual and group nutrient intakes with defined confidence. Journal of Nutrition 117, 1638–1641.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beaton, GH (1982) What do we think we are estimating? In Proceedings of the symposium on dietary data collection, analysis and significance,pp 36–48 [Beal, VA and Laus, MJ, editors'. Massachusetts Agricultural Research Station, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. Research Bulletin No. 675.Google Scholar
Beaton, GH (1994) Approaches to analysis of dietary data: relationship between planned analyses and choice of methodology. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 50 (suppl.), 253S–261S.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beaton, GH, Milner, J, Corey, P, McGuire, V, Cousins, M, Stewart, E, de Ramos, M, Hewitt, D, Grambsch, PV, Kassim, N & Little, JA (1979) Sources of variance in 24-hour dietary recall data: implications for nutrition study design and interpretation. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 32, 2456–2559.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freudenheim, JL, Johnson, NE & Wardrop, RL (1987) Misclassification of nutrient intake of individuals and groups using one-, two-, three-, and seven-day food records. American Journal of Epidemiology 126(4), 703–713.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gibney, MJ (1999) Development of food-based dietary guidelines: a case-study of fibre intake in Irish women. British Journal of Nutrition 81 (suppl.), S151–S152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gregory, J, Foster, K, Tyler, H & Wiseman, M (1990) The Dietary and Nutritional Survey of British Adults. London: HM Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Liu, K, Stamler, J, Dyer, A, McKeever, J & McKeever, P (1978) Statistical methods to assess and minimize the role of intra-individual variability in obscuring the relationship between dietary lipids and serum cholesterol. Journal of Chronic Diseases 31, 399–418.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Löwik, MRH (1996) Possible use of food consumption surveys to estimate exposure to additives. Food Additives and Contaminants, 13(4), 427–441.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sempos, C, Looker, A & Johnson, C (1991) The importance of within-person variability in estimating prevalence. In Monitoring Dietary Intakes pp 99–109 [MacDonald, I, editor]. New York: Springer Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar