Lj. Martin et al., COMPARISON OF ENERGY INTAKES DETERMINED BY FOOD RECORDS AND DOUBLY LABELED WATER IN WOMEN PARTICIPATING IN A DIETARY-INTERVENTION TRIAL, The American journal of clinical nutrition, 63(4), 1996, pp. 483-490
The accuracy of estimates of usual energy intake derived from food rec
ords in participants of a long-term dietary-intervention trial was stu
died in a subset of 29 women aged 48.7 +/- 5.0 y and weighing 61.9 +/-
6.5 kg. This sample was similar to the population in the whole trial
(n = 715), from which it was selected in terms of age, weight, body ma
ss index (BMI), and reported energy and fat intakes. During the valida
tion study, reported energy intake was derived from 7 consecutive days
of food records, and total energy expenditure was measured by the dou
bly labeled water method over 13 d. Reported energy intake (6.98 +/- 1
.58 MJ/d) was significantly lower than energy expenditure (9.00 +/- 2.
08 MJ/d) and represented 79.8 +/- 17.6% of expenditure. The correlatio
n between reported energy intake and expenditure was 0.46 (P = 0.01, 9
5% CI: 0.15, 0.71). Body weight, BMI, height, length of time in the di
etary trial, and percentage of energy from fat and carbohydrate were n
ot significantly associated with the accuracy of reporting. These resu
lts indicate that energy intake derived from food records is an imprec
ise measure that substantially underestimates energy intake in middle-
aged women participating in a long-term dietary-intervention trial.