Renzella Jessica, Fernando Santhushya, Kalupahana Buwaneka, Rayner Mike, Scarborough Peter, Townsend Nick
Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, BDI Building, Old Road Campus, Oxford, OX3 7FZ, UK.
Sri Jayewardenepura General Hospital and Post Graduate Training Centre, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
BMC Nutr. 2021 Nov 22;7(1):79. doi: 10.1186/s40795-021-00481-9.
As the World Health Organization urges countries to strengthen their noncommunicable disease monitoring and surveillance activities, setting-specific innovations are emerging. Diet - a key, modifiable risk factor for chronic diseases - is particularly challenging to capture reliably. By socially validating self-report dietary survey tools, we may be able to increase the accuracy and representativeness of data for improved population health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that impact Sri Lankan Brief Dietary Survey (a newly developed tool) and 24-h Dietary Recall participation, engagement, and social validity among Sri Lankan adults.
We conducted semi-structured interviews with 93 participants (61 women and 32 men) in three Sri Lankan districts (Colombo, Kalutara, and Trincomalee). Interview data were analysed thematically and are presented as non-hierarchical thematic networks.
Participants identified a number of factors that influenced their survey participation and engagement. These included the time of day interviews occur, recall ease, level of commitment required, perceived survey value, emotional response to surveys, and interviewer positionality. Many of these factors were gendered, however, both female and male participants expressed a preference for engaging with socially valid research that they felt justified their personal investment in data collection. When explicitly asked to share ideas about how to improve the surveys, many participants opted not to provide suggestions as they felt they lacked the appropriate expertise.
Our findings have implications for the accuracy and equity of dietary surveillance activities, and ultimately the appropriateness and effectiveness of programmes and policies informed by these data. Only through understanding how and why the target population engages with dietary research can we develop socially valid methods that assess and address the dietary risks of individuals and groups that are underrepresented by current conventions.
随着世界卫生组织敦促各国加强其非传染性疾病监测活动，特定领域的创新不断涌现。饮食——慢性病的一个关键且可改变的风险因素——要可靠地获取尤其具有挑战性。通过对自我报告饮食调查工具进行社会效度验证，我们或许能够提高数据的准确性和代表性，以改善人群健康状况。本研究的目的是探讨影响斯里兰卡简短饮食调查（一种新开发的工具）以及24小时饮食回顾在斯里兰卡成年人中的参与度、投入度和社会效度的因素。
我们在斯里兰卡的三个地区（科伦坡、卡卢特勒和亭可马里）对93名参与者（61名女性和32名男性）进行了半结构化访谈。对访谈数据进行了主题分析，并以非层次化主题网络的形式呈现。
参与者确定了一些影响他们参与调查和投入度的因素。这些因素包括访谈进行的时间、回忆的难易程度、所需的投入程度、感知到的调查价值、对调查的情绪反应以及访谈者的立场。然而，其中许多因素存在性别差异，不过，女性和男性参与者都表示更倾向于参与具有社会效度的研究，他们认为这种研究证明了他们在数据收集方面的个人投入是合理的。当被明确要求分享关于如何改进调查的想法时，许多参与者选择不提供建议，因为他们觉得自己缺乏适当的专业知识。
我们的研究结果对饮食监测活动的准确性和公平性具有影响，最终也影响基于这些数据的项目和政策的适当性和有效性。只有通过了解目标人群如何以及为何参与饮食研究，我们才能开发出具有社会效度的方法，以评估和解决当前惯例未充分代表的个人和群体的饮食风险。
