Dietary Exposure Assessment Group, Nutrition and Metabolism Section, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France.
Int J Epidemiol. 2012 Aug;41(4):1187-203. doi: 10.1093/ije/dys105.
The use of innovative technologies is deemed to improve dietary assessment in various research settings. However, their relative merits in nutritional epidemiological studies, which require accurate quantitative estimates of the usual intake at individual level, still need to be evaluated.
To report on the inventory of available innovative technologies for dietary assessment and to critically evaluate their strengths and weaknesses as compared with the conventional methodologies (i.e. Food Frequency Questionnaires, food records, 24-hour dietary recalls) used in epidemiological studies.
A list of currently available technologies was identified from English-language journals, using PubMed and Web of Science. The search criteria were principally based on the date of publication (between 1995 and 2011) and pre-defined search keywords.
Six main groups of innovative technologies were identified ('Personal Digital Assistant-', 'Mobile-phone-', 'Interactive computer-', 'Web-', 'Camera- and tape-recorder-' and 'Scan- and sensor-based' technologies). Compared with the conventional food records, Personal Digital Assistant and mobile phone devices seem to improve the recording through the possibility for 'real-time' recording at eating events, but their validity to estimate individual dietary intakes was low to moderate. In 24-hour dietary recalls, there is still limited knowledge regarding the accuracy of fully automated approaches; and methodological problems, such as the inaccuracy in self-reported portion sizes might be more critical than in interview-based applications. In contrast, measurement errors in innovative web-based and in conventional paper-based Food Frequency Questionnaires are most likely similar, suggesting that the underlying methodology is unchanged by the technology.
Most of the new technologies in dietary assessment were seen to have overlapping methodological features with the conventional methods predominantly used for nutritional epidemiology. Their main potential to enhance dietary assessment is through more cost- and time-effective, less laborious ways of data collection and higher subject acceptance, though their integration in epidemiological studies would need additional considerations, such as the study objectives, the target population and the financial resources available. However, even in innovative technologies, the inherent individual bias related to self-reported dietary intake will not be resolved. More research is therefore crucial to investigate the validity of innovative dietary assessment technologies.
创新技术的使用被认为可以改善各种研究环境中的饮食评估。然而，在需要准确估计个体水平的通常摄入量的营养流行病学研究中，它们的相对优势仍需要进行评估。
报告现有的创新饮食评估技术，并批判性地评估它们与流行病学研究中使用的传统方法（即食物频率问卷、食物记录、24 小时膳食回忆）相比的优缺点。
使用 PubMed 和 Web of Science 从英文期刊中确定了当前可用技术的清单。搜索标准主要基于发表日期（1995 年至 2011 年之间）和预定义的搜索关键字。
确定了六个主要的创新技术组（“个人数字助理”、“移动电话”、“交互式计算机”、“网络”、“相机和录音机”以及“扫描和传感器技术”）。与传统的食物记录相比，个人数字助理和移动电话设备似乎通过在进食事件中进行“实时”记录来改善记录，但它们估计个体饮食摄入量的有效性为低到中度。在 24 小时膳食回忆中，对于完全自动化方法的准确性仍然知之甚少；并且方法学问题，例如自我报告的份量不准确，可能比基于访谈的应用更为关键。相比之下，创新的基于网络的和传统的基于纸张的食物频率问卷中的测量误差很可能相似，这表明技术没有改变基础方法。
饮食评估中的大多数新技术都被认为与营养流行病学中主要使用的传统方法具有重叠的方法学特征。它们增强饮食评估的主要潜力是通过更具成本效益、更省力、更高的对象接受度的方式进行数据收集，尽管它们在流行病学研究中的整合需要额外的考虑，例如研究目标、目标人群和可用的财务资源。然而，即使在创新技术中，与自我报告的饮食摄入相关的个体固有偏差也不会得到解决。因此，需要进行更多的研究来调查创新饮食评估技术的有效性。
