Memory Errors in Children's Dietary Recalls

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The 24-hour recall is the most commonly used method for dietary surveys in the US and is often used to obtain information from children; however, validation studies indicate that the accuracy of children's dietary recalls is inadequate. Specifically, children omit (fail to report) items consumed, and intrude (falsely report) items not consumed. Furthermore, children may confuse items consumed one day with items consumed another day. Although children (and adults) report their intake in terms of items, recall accuracy compared to actual intake is typically assessed indirectly at the nutrient level, which may appear high for some nutrients because intrusions may compensate for omissions. Numerous studies indicate that, for adults, underreporting of energy intake increases as body mass index (BMI) increases. The goal of this two-year project is to better understand reporting errors in children's dietary recalls, and the impact of such errors on reporting performance, by conducting psychologically-informed analyses. Innovative analyses will be conducted on data collected previously from 294 fourth-grade children in three studies, which validated a total of 586 dietary recalls with observations. The research questions are: 1) When children report dietary intake for a particular day (the target, or reference, day), to what extent are intrusions more likely to be items to which the child was exposed on or shortly before the target day than to be other items? 2) To what extent does recall accuracy assessed at the nutrient level parallel that assessed at the item level? 3) Is any aspect of children's reporting errors related to BMI? Specifically, is there a tendency for net underreporting, or any particular pattern between intrusions and omissions, that increases as BMI increases? Answers to these questions will improve our understanding of reporting errors in children's dietary recalls; this understanding will inform the development of methods intended to enhance the accuracy of children's recalls. More accurate recalls from children would permit better evaluation of the relationship between diet and health, and facilitate the development of strategies to promote healthful dietary intake. Healthful dietary habits will decrease the risk of such chronic diseases as cardiovascular diseases.