Validation of a pre-coded food diary used among 60-80 year old men: comparison of self-reported energy intake with objectively recorded energy expenditure.

OBJECTIVE

To validate energy intake (EI) estimated from a pre-coded food diary (PFD) against energy expenditure (EE) measured with a valid physical activity monitor (SenseWear Pro3 Armband) and to evaluate whether misreporting was associated with overweight/obesity in a group of elderly men.

METHODS

Forty-seven healthy Norwegian men, 60-80 years old, completed the study. As this study was part of a larger intervention study, cross-sectional data were collected at both baseline and post-test. Participants recorded their food intake for four consecutive days using food diaries and wore SenseWear Pro3 Armband (SWA) during the same period. Only participants with complete data sets at both baseline and post-test were included in the study.

RESULTS

The group average EI was 17% lower at baseline and 18% lower at post-test compared to measured EE. Mean difference from Bland-Altman plot for EI and EE was -1.5 MJ/day (±1.96 SD: -7.0, 4.0 MJ/day) at baseline and -1.6 MJ/day (-6.6, 3.4 MJ/day) at post-test. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.30 (95% CI: 0.02, 0.54, p = 0.018) at baseline and 0.34 (0.06, 0.57, p = 0.009) at post-test. Higher values of underreporting was shown among overweight/obese compared to normal weight participants at both baseline and post-test (p≤ 0.001), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicate that the PFD could be a useful tool for estimating energy intake in normal weight elderly men. On the other hand, the PFD seems to be less suitable for estimating energy intake in overweight/obese elderly men.