(P20-080-24) Does Interview Type Affect Children's Dietary Recall Accuracy: Differences by Meal Components

Objectives: 18% of children in the state of Georgia are obese. Assessing children’s diets could share information on childhood obesity prevention and treatment. However, obtaining a 24-hour dietary analysis from a child is complex because children lack proper developmental and cognitive maturity. While information could be gathered by proxy, limited data for foods eaten outside the home can be collected (i.e. in school). This study aims to understand if a child’s meal recall accuracy, overall and by meal component, differs between those interviewed via quantified vs. non-quantified methodology.

Methods: The study participants were from a camp serving the state of Georgia (60 students) and a local Athens Elementary School (44 students). Participants had their weights and heights collected to analyze BMI. Chosen participants had their BMI classified as Normal (25th-70th percentiles) or High (≥85th percentile). The methodology consists of participants being observed at meal time and, after 24 hours, participating in a quantified (numerical and descriptive) or non-quantified (descriptive) interview method to recall foods eaten. Reported foods fell into a Match, omission, and intrusion category.

Results: Results show the subjects from the camp had higher omissions and intrusions for each interview type. The camp study did not have any statistically significant results. For the Elementary school study, bread is statistically significant for omissions and intrusions, as Quantified interviews have a significantly higher omission and intrusion rate.

Conclusions: The findings of our data lead us to believe that the settings where the foods were eaten can affect children's recall accuracy. In the future, there is hope to conduct the study with a larger participant pool and to analyze the role BMI, sex, and race play in a child’s recall ability.

Funding Sources: Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics