Electronic 12-Hour Dietary Recall (e-12HR): Comparison of a Mobile Phone App for Dietary Intake Assessment With a Food Frequency Questionnaire and Four Dietary Records

Abstract

BackgroundOne of the greatest challenges in nutritional epidemiology is improving upon traditional self-reporting methods for the assessment of habitual dietary intake. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate the relative validity of a new method known as the current-day dietary recall (or current-day recall), based on a smartphone app called 12-hour dietary recall, for determining the habitual intake of a series of key food and drink groups using a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and four dietary records as reference methods. MethodsUniversity students over the age of 18 years recorded their consumption of certain groups of food and drink using 12-hour dietary recall for 28 consecutive days. During this 28-day period, they also completed four dietary records on randomly selected days. Once the monitoring period was over, subjects then completed an FFQ. The two methods were compared using the Spearman correlation coefficient (SCC), a cross-classification analysis, and weighted kappa. ResultsA total of 87 participants completed the study (64% women, 56/87; 36% men, 31/87). ConclusionsCurrent-day recall, based on the 12-hour dietary recall app, was found to be in good agreement with the two reference methods (FFQ & four dietary records), demonstrating its potential usefulness for categorizing individuals according to their habitual dietary intake of certain food and drink groups.