NULHAKIM JURAIMI | DIET 3
TECHNIQUES IN MEASURING DIET
No Techniques Strength
1 Food balance *Give a total view of a country’s
sheet food supplies
*Indicate food habits and dietary
trends.
*Used to plan international
nutrition policies and food
programs
*Only data available on country’s
food intake practices
2 Food account *Suitable for use with large
sample sizes
*Can be used over relatively long
periods
*Gives data on dietary pattern
and habits of families and other
groups.
*Less likely to lead to alteration in
diet.
*Economical
3 24 diet recall *Requires less than 20 minutes to
administer.
*Inexpensive
*Easy to administer.
*Provide detailed information on
types of food consumed.
*Low respondent burden
*Probability sampling possible.
*Can be used to estimate nutrient
intake of groups.
*Multiple recalls can be used to
estimate nutrient intakes of
individuals.
*More objective than the dietary
history and FFQ.
*Does not alter usual diet.
Useful in clinical settings
4 Food record *Do not depend on memory.
*Can provide detailed intake
data.
*Can provide data about eating
habits.
*Multiple day data more
representative of usual intake.
*Reasonably valid up to 5 days.
5 FFQ *Can be self-administered.
*Machine readable.
*Low respondent burden, high forms, thus could not reflect the actual
response rate.
Limitation
*Accuracy of data may be questionable.
*Only represent food available for
consumption.
*Does not represent food
actually consumed.
*Does not indicate how food was
distributed.
*Does not account for wasted food.
*Does not account for food losses
*Respondent literacy and cooperation
necessary
*Not appropriate for measuring
individual food consumption
*One recall is seldom
representative of a person’s
usual intake
*day-to-day or intra- individual
variability
*Underreporting/ overreporting occurs.
*Relies on memory
*Omission of dressings, sauces,
beverages- leads to underestimate
energy intake
*Food eaten but not
reported – missing foods
*Foods not eaten but reported –
phantom foods
*Data entry can be labor intensive
*Requires high degree of cooperation.
*Response burden can result in low
response rate when used in large
national survey.
*Subject must be literate.
*Takes more time to obtain data.
*Act of recording may alter diet.
*Analysis is labor intensive and
expensive
*Possibility of food consumed by
respondents not listed in the FFQ
food intake pattern.
NULHAKIM JURAIMI | DIET 3
*Relatively inexpensive for large
sample sizes.
*More representative of usual
intake than a few days of diet
records.
*Design can be based on large
population data.
*Considered by some as the
method of choice for research on
diet-disease relationship.
6 Diet history *Assess usual nutrient intake.
*Can detect seasonal change.
*Data on all nutrients can be
obtained.
*Can correlate well with
biochemical measures.
7 Duplicate Provide more accurate
food measurements of actual nutrient
collection intake than calculations based on
food composition table.
8 Photo/video *Photographic method has good
record validity.
*Video method has good validity
and reproducibility.
*Recording food intake takes less
time than 24- hour recalls or food
records.
*Respondent burden is less.
*Appear to be acceptable to
subjects.
*Eating habits may be less
affected by recording.
*Well suited for institutional
settings and disabled persons.
9 Phone IV *One-quarter to one-half the cost
of a comparable personal
interview
*Fewer time, logistical and
personnel constraints.
*Lower respondent burden.
*Higher response rate compared
to mail surveys.
*Gives respondent more personal
security.
*Lengthy FFQ (from list type of food)
will give an overestimate from the
actual intake.
*Depend on the ability of subjects to
describe diet.
*Must be culturally specific and food
list updated from time to time.
*Lengthy interview process.
*Requires highly trained interviewers,
labor intensive.
*Results depend on skill of interviewer.
*Difficult and expensive to
code.
*May tend to overestimate nutrient
intake.
*Requires cooperative respondent with
ability to recall usual diet
*Expense and effort of preparing more
food.
*Effort and time to collect duplicate
samples.
*May underestimate usual intake.
*Large initial expense involved (may be
offset by lower long-term costs).
*Periodic revalidations are
recommended.
*Unable to visually distinguish visually
similar foods or document preparation
method.
*Subject to technical problem caused
by sophisticates equipment.
*Subject to many of the same
disadvantages of collecting 24- hour
recall and food record data.
*Estimating portion sizes in recalls may
be difficult unless steps are taken to
address the problem