Shortening the Retention Interval of 24-Hour Dietary Recalls Increases Fourth-Grade Children’s Accuracy for Reporting Energy and Macronutrient Intake at School Meals.

SUZANNE DOMEL BAXTER, PhD, RD, LD, FADA; CAROLINE H. GUINN, RD, LD; JULIE A. ROYER, MSPH; JAMES W. HARDIN, PhD; ALBERT F. SMITH, PhD, MS


The purpose of this original research was to examine the accuracy of energy and macronutrient reporting in the retention-interval validation study. The conventional and reporting-error-sensitive approaches were compared to promote a better approach to analyzing data from validation studies, thus making dietary reporting errors comprehensible.

The conventional approach uses paired t tests and correlations to compare mean differences among reported and reference energy and macronutrients, and calculates a report rate for energy and each nutrient. The reporting-error-sensitive method is sensitive to reporting errors for food items and amounts because it classifies reported items as matches or intrusions and then classifies reported amounts as corresponding, unreported or overreported.

Throughout 2004-2007, 2,391 children from fourth-grade classes at various elementary schools in one school district were invited to participate in this study. 1,780 children agreed to participate and 335 children actually participated (169 girls). Offer-vs-serve is utilized in the school district of this study’s sample, meaning the children could refuse some meal items. Each child was observed eating the school meals of breakfast and lunch, and interviewed to obtain a 24-hour recall by using one of the six interview conditions, which were created by crossing two target periods (prior 24 hours and previous day) with three interview times (morning, afternoon or evening).

Research staff observed the children eating school meals. The children randomized to prior-24-hour recalls in the morning, were observed during lunch one day and breakfast the next day. All other children were observed at breakfast and lunch during the same day. The research staff observed one to three children at one time and documented the food items and servings of school meal portions. Research staff who did not observe the school meals interviewed the children individually to gather 24-hour dietary recalls.

Results from this study concluded for each target period, energy and macronutrient reported amounts were less than reference amounts (eight P values ≤0.0006; paired t tests). For each target period for energy and each macronutrient, Pearson correlations between reference and reported amounts ranged from 0.33 to 0.46 and were different from zero (eight P values <0.0001). The target period, interview time, their interaction or sex were significant for report rates for energy or macronutrients.

It was shown that shortening the retention interval of dietary recalls increases accuracy for reporting energy and macronutrients. For validation studies, it is best to gather reference information from a method that provides details about foods and their amounts consumed, and to use methods which expose errors of reported foods and their amounts. The conventional method was reported to overestimate food intake and provided a distorted picture, further confirming the significance of using reporting-error-sensitive approach.


Baxter, S. D., Guinn, C. H., Royer, J. A., Hardin, J. W., & Smith, A. F. (2010). Shortening the retention interval of 24-hour dietary recalls increases fourth-grade children’s accuracy for reporting energy and macronutrient intake at school meals. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 110(8), 1178-1188.




Related Article:
Baxter SD, Thompson WO, Davis HC. (2000). Prompting methods affect the accuracy of children’s school lunch recalls. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 100, 911-918.