DIetary ASSessment (DIASS) Study: Design of an Evaluation Study to Assess Validity, Usability and Perceived Burden of an Innovative Dietary Assessment Methodology

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 14; no. 6; p. 1156
• Main Authors: Lucassen, Desiree A, Brouwer-Brolsma, Elske M, Slotegraaf, Anne I, Kok, Esther, Feskens, Edith J M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 09.03.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Adult; Bias; Data collection; Diet; diet quality; Diet Records; dietary assessment; Dietary intake; Eating; Ecological Momentary Assessment; EMA; Error analysis; Error reduction; Evaluation; Female; FFQ; Food; Humans; Male; Methodology; Methods; Middle Aged; Nutrition Assessment; Nutrition research; Questionnaires; Recall; Smartphones; Social networks; technology; Urine; Usability; Young Adult; FFQ; diet quality; nutritional biomarkers; recall; EMA; dietary assessment; technology; validation
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu14061156

During recent years, the integration of technology has substantially improved self-reported dietary assessment methods, such as food frequency questionnaires (FFQ), food records, and 24-h recalls. To further reduce measurement error, additional innovations are urgently needed. Memory-related measurement error is one of the aspects that warrants attention, which is where new smartphone technologies and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) approaches provide a unique opportunity. In this article, we describe the DIASS study, which was designed to evaluate an innovative 2-h recall (2hR) smartphone-based methodology, against traditional 24-h recalls, FFQ, and biomarkers, to assess both actual and habitual dietary intake. It is hypothesized that a 2-h reporting window decreases reliance on memory and reporting burden, and increases data accuracy. We included 215 men (28%) and women (72%), with a mean ± SD age of 39 ± 19 years and a mean ± SD BMI of 23.8 ± 4.0. Most participants were highly educated (58%). Response rates for the various dietary assessment methods were >90%. Besides the evaluation of the accuracy, usability, and perceived burden of the 2hR methodology, the study set-up also allows for (further) evaluation of the other administrated dietary assessment tools.