Validation of a pre-coded food diary used among 60-80 year old men: comparison of self-reported energy intake with objectively recorded energy expenditure

Tonje H Stea; Lene F Andersen; Gøran Paulsen; Ken J Hetlelid; Hilde Lohne-Seiler; Svanhild Adnanes; Thomas Bjørnsen; Svein Salvesen; Sveinung Berntsen

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102029

Validation of a pre-coded food diary used among 60-80 year old men: comparison of self-reported energy intake with objectively recorded energy expenditure

PLoS One. 2014 Jul 14;9(7):e102029. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0102029. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Tonje H Stea¹, Lene F Andersen², Gøran Paulsen³, Ken J Hetlelid¹, Hilde Lohne-Seiler¹, Svanhild Adnanes¹, Thomas Bjørnsen¹, Svein Salvesen¹, Sveinung Berntsen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health, Sport and Nutrition, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway.
² Department of Nutrition, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
³ Department of Physical Performance, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway.

Abstract

Objective: To validate energy intake (EI) estimated from a pre-coded food diary (PFD) against energy expenditure (EE) measured with a valid physical activity monitor (SenseWear Pro3 Armband) and to evaluate whether misreporting was associated with overweight/obesity in a group of elderly men.

Methods: Forty-seven healthy Norwegian men, 60-80 years old, completed the study. As this study was part of a larger intervention study, cross-sectional data were collected at both baseline and post-test. Participants recorded their food intake for four consecutive days using food diaries and wore SenseWear Pro3 Armband (SWA) during the same period. Only participants with complete data sets at both baseline and post-test were included in the study.

Results: The group average EI was 17% lower at baseline and 18% lower at post-test compared to measured EE. Mean difference from Bland-Altman plot for EI and EE was -1.5 MJ/day (±1.96 SD: -7.0, 4.0 MJ/day) at baseline and -1.6 MJ/day (-6.6, 3.4 MJ/day) at post-test. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.30 (95% CI: 0.02, 0.54, p = 0.018) at baseline and 0.34 (0.06, 0.57, p = 0.009) at post-test. Higher values of underreporting was shown among overweight/obese compared to normal weight participants at both baseline and post-test (p≤ 0.001), respectively.

Conclusions: The results indicate that the PFD could be a useful tool for estimating energy intake in normal weight elderly men. On the other hand, the PFD seems to be less suitable for estimating energy intake in overweight/obese elderly men.

Publication types

Comparative Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Validation Study

MeSH terms

Aged
Body Mass Index
Body Weight / physiology*
Diet Records*
Energy Intake / physiology*
Energy Metabolism / physiology*
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Monitoring, Ambulatory / methods
Monitoring, Ambulatory / statistics & numerical data
Motor Activity / physiology
Self Report / standards*

Grants and funding

The present study was supported by grants from the Smartfish® company and Regional Research Founds, Agder [grant number 222933]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.