Year: 1972
Type: article
Abstract: Dietary surveys can take a number of different forms but may be grouped into two main categories: those in which a dietary history is obtained by recall and those in which a weighed, measured or estimated food record is made at the time of food consumption. The dietary history survey may be an individually reported record in which details of the food con sumed during the previous 24 hours are recalled. An example of this type of survey is that undertaken by Chattaway, Happold, and Happold (1946) who asked subjects to recall all they had eaten during the previous day, then showed them different weighed amounts of the food they had mentioned and asked them to select the amount eaten. Attempts have been made to estimate normal or typical food intake using dietary histories. Zukel et al. (1959) estimated 'usual' dietary intake by collecting histories of a typical day's menu together with a detailed dietary history over a four-week period; Babcock, Church, and Gates (1954) used a 30-minute interview to obtain 'usual' intake, and Burke, Reed, van den Berg, and Stuart (1959) used a comprehensive, cross checked interview to obtain 'usual' pattern of eating for children. All these methods and modifications of them rely on recall and may therefore be unreliable. In addition, the conversion of reported sizes of portion may be affected by individual variation in those carrying out the conversion (Brewer, 1959). It may, therefore, be more suitable, when diet at the individual level is being investigated in this manner, to use the data to obtain frequencies of intake of different foods rather than to estimate exact quanti ties.
Authors: S G Topp, J Cook, A Elliott
Institutions: St Thomas' Hospital, Kent County Council
Language: English
Subfield: Nutrition and Dietetics
Field: Nursing
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2060075495