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Project

Improving efficacy of dietary interventions: a quest for new methods

INTRODUCTION Measuring dietary intake remains challenging for both nutritional practitioners and researchers. To perform a successful dietary intervention however, it is crucial to assess dietary intake accurately and conveniently. While classic methods for dietary assessment are being used in research for years, they are known to have several limitations. Currently, there is an urgent need for new dietary assessment methods in order to meet the limitations and challenges of previous methods and to improve the quality of dietary interventions. AIM The aim of this project is to evaluate current and develop new dietary assessment methods for nutritional research. WORKPACKAGES Currently, most used dietary assessment methods include food diaries, food frequency questionnaires and 24-hour dietary recalls. However, emerging new technologies give rise to opportunities to further improve the current methods and develop new methods for dietary assessment. WP 1. An inventory of current available methods with new technologies (e. g. wearables, mHealth applications, image based dietary assessment…) will be created based on a literature review performed across scientific databases to evaluate the limitations and challenges of existing methods for dietary assessment. Based on this inventory the needs and requirements will be identified to develop a new dietary assessment method. WP 2. Current newly developed memory-based tools (e.g. Food Frequency Questionnaire, Ca-Screener) will be validated. Content validity will be evaluated through a semi-structured cognitive interview with the participants. Reproducibility will be determined by Pearson correlation coefficients and intraclass correlation coefficients for two subsequent dietary assessments. Additionally, relative validity will be tested by comparing the new dietary assessment tools with 3-day food diaries. WP 3. Development of a new dietary assessment method based on the experience sampling method. In this project the principle of the experience sampling method will be applied in a new context to assess dietary intake which, to our knowledge, has never been researched before. User experience (UX) research techniques such as usability testing will be used in the development process. Lastly, the newly developed dietary assessment method will be tested against a relative golden standard.

Date:16 Sep 2019 →  Today
Keywords:dietary assessment, dietary intervention, food frequency questionnaire, nutritional research
Disciplines:Nutrition and dietetics not elsewhere classified
Project type:PhD project