Effectiveness of Prompts on Fourth-Grade Children's Dietary Recall Accuracy Depends on Retention Interval and Varies by Gender. Issue 9 (29th July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Baxter, Suzanne D; Smith, Albert F; Hitchcock, David B; Guinn, Caroline H; Royer, Julie A; Collins, Kathleen L; Smith, Alyssa L; Puryear, Megan P; Vaadi, Kate K; Finney, Christopher J; Miller, Patricia H
• Is Part Of: Journal of nutrition. Volume 145:Issue 9(2015)
• Page Start: 2185
• Page End: 2192
• Publication Date: 2015-07-29
• Subjects: 24-h recall -- children -- retention interval -- prompts -- gender; Nutrition -- Periodicals; Diet -- Periodicals; 613.205
• DOI: 10.3945/jn.115.213298
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-3166

Abstract

Abstract: Background: Dietary recall accuracy is related to retention interval (RI) (i.e., time between to-be-reported meals and the interview), and possibly to prompts. To the best of our knowledge, no study has evaluated their combined effect. Objective: The combined influence of RI and prompts on children's recall accuracy was investigated in this study. Two RIs [short (prior-24-h recall obtained in afternoon) and long (previous-day recall obtained in morning)] were crossed with 4 prompts [forward (distant-to-recent), meal-name (breakfast, lunch, etc.), open (no instructions), and reverse (recent-to-distant)], creating 8 conditions. Methods: Fourth-grade children ( n = 480; 50% girls) were randomly selected from consenting children at 10 schools in 4 districts in a southern state during 3 school years (2011–2012, 2012–2013, and 2013–2014). Each child was observed eating school-provided breakfast and lunch, and interviewed one time under 1 of the 8 conditions. Condition assignment was constrained so that each had 60 children (30 girls). Accuracy measures were food-item omission and intrusion rates, and energy correspondence rate and inflation ratio. For each measure, linear models determined effects of RI, prompt, gender, and interactions (2-way, 3-way); race/ethnicity, school year, and district were control variables. Results: RI ( P values < 0.015) and prompt ( P values < 0.005) were significant for all 4 accuracy measures. RI × prompt ( P values < 0.001) was significant for 3 accuracy measures (not intrusion rate). Prompt × gender ( P = 0.005) was significant for omission rate. RI × prompt × gender was significant for intrusion rate and inflation ratio ( P values < 0.001). For the short vs. long RI across prompts and genders, accuracy was better by 33–50% for each accuracy measure. Conclusions: To obtain the most accurate recalls possible from children, studies should be designed to use a short rather than long RI. Prompts affect children's recall accuracy, although the effectiveness of different prompts depends on RI and varies by gender: at a short RI, the choice of prompts has little systematic effect on accuracy, whereas at a long RI, reverse prompts may elicit the most accurate recalls.