Question 3
Are there any drawbacks to using a 24-hour recall? If so, what would you suggest to use instead?
posted by Anonymous @ 4:43 PM
14 comments
ISU Dietetic Internship Journal Club
Objective: To become familiar with current scientific literature on a variety of nutrition topics and to gain experience in gathering, organizing, critically evaluating, presenting and facilitating group discussion of the literature and the implications to practice.
14 Comments:
My first impression when reading that the researchers chose a 24-hour diet recall for the method of dietary intake collection was that it appeared surprising that they would choose this technique. With 9,475 participants, it would be incredibly time consuming and tedious to obtain the data from such a large sample size. I think that since the researchers seemed to possess the resources to collect the data with this approach, that is was the best choice for this study because the 24-hour recall is very thorough and detailed. Although, I do also believe that a food frequency questionnaire could have been much easier and less time consuming for both the participants and the researchers.
One of the major drawbacks of a 24 hour recall is that the dietary intake for the day in question may not reflect what the person normally eats. It may have been better to ask what they eat on a typical day or use a food frequency questionnaire.
There are some drawbacks to a 24 hour recall. As Kathy said, it may not reflect what a person usually eats. There is also the issue with patients remembering what they ate and how much at each meal. It is really difficult for someone to guess how much they ate when they don't know anything about serving sizes. I know there are references to use such as the palm of a hand and a thumb but their guesses may be very inaccurate. It's always a possibility people will leave things out or exaggerate the healthy items they ate. I think a food frequency questionnaire may have been a better option for this study.
Brooke- I agree that this was most likely extremely time consuming depending on how the 24 hour recall was obtained. A food frequency questionnaire would have been more efficient and would have provided the information needed as long as the questions were worded correctly.
Using a 24 hour recall has definite draw backs, the person may not completely recall all foods they ate the day before, the person may not be aware of what a true serving size is, or they may remember eating less than they actually did eat. Using a food frequency questionnaire would have been a better route in my opinion to take.
I agree with Brooke that this study may have decided to use a 24 hr recall because they were training their counselors for over a week. This may have led the researchers to think that the incorrect recordings in the results would be minimized and they could use a 24 hour recall for the study.
Yes there is one major drawback by using a 24-hour recall, it is based on the memory of the person in question. I feel that calcium would not be affected that much by the negetives of a 24-hour recall. A person may have forgot how much oil they used to cook with but I am sure they would remember taking a supplement or drinking milk. Now a 3 day food record would have been better but I feel this is still valid.
Brooke and Kathy both bring up good points that I feel off set each other. Yes this study needed a simple tool having over 9,000 participants but a 24-hour recall is not a typical day. Maybe a FFQ would have been the way to go. Easy to administer and would have showed trends in eating habits.
With the extremely large sample size, a 24 hour recall is the most efficient and cost-effective method to analyze over 9000 individual's diets. Since it was a wide variety of people surveyed i.e. 19 YO to 80 YO, a 24 diet recall is a method of measurement that is easily understood by this varied population.
Kevin, I think you make a good point that people will more likely remember taking a supplement or drinking a glass of milk than how much oil they used. This reminds me of last month's question about whether or not micronutrient data would be more valid than macronutrient data from a food frequency questionnaire. Finding out would make an interesting study
There are draw backs to using a 24-hour recall. Often times pt/clients list improper portion sizes and forget food/beverages consumed. In some situations to please the RD they exaggerate the quality of food they ate. For this study with so many people they could have used a food frequency questionnaire that would also have let them estimate calcium intake.
Kathy, I think you make an excellent suggestion that the 24-hour food recall may not have been a typical day. This could have been a day were they consumed a little or large amount of calcium, which would impact the results of the study.
Everyone seems to agree that a food frequency questionnaire is a better way to go and I also agree. Brooke, you are right a 24 hour recall must have taking an extremely long time. A 24 hour recall if done without many errors is a better indicator because you can really see what and how much someone consumed but for this study I feel that a FFQ would have made the results just as valid.
24 hour recall suggests the last 24 hours and does not take into account any changes due to the day or any special circumstances. I believe, and typically use, an "usual" day when working with individuals
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