RESEARCH NEEDS FOR DIETARY ASSESSMENT AND MONITORING IN THE UNITED-STATES

The 10-y Plan for the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Resear ch Program calls for research related to dietary data collection and i nterpretation and for improved data dissemination. The United States D epartment of Agriculture Human Nutrition Information Service has relea sed data from the 1989 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individual s and is planning for the next one. Respondent burden will be reduced. The sample is designed for improved estimates of dietary intakes for children and elderly individuals. An automated coding system will cont ribute to improved data management. Current research projects include developing data collection strategies in a cognitive research laborato ry, exploring alternative interview structures for children, and devel oping methods to estimate the distributors of usual intakes of nutrien ts and foods. Priorities for further research and development are appl ying cognitive psychology research techniques to improve accuracy of r esponses, ensuring the temporal validity of food-composition databases , and developing the probability approach for assessing dietary adequa cy.