USE OF THE MULTIPLE-DAY WEIGHED RECORD FOR SENEGALESE CHILDREN DURINGTHE WEANING PERIOD - A CASE OF THE INSTRUMENT EFFECT

In West Africa, the multiple-day weighed record is the most widely use d technique for measuring children's food intakes. The children's eati ng behavior might be disrupted by the frequent weighings and the prese nce of a field-worker in the home. We explored the possibility of such an ''instrument effect'' in a 7-d food survey of 70 Senegalese childr en aged 10-13 mo. Energy intakes decreased significantly during the fo od survey (P < 0.0001). The decrease affected both daytime breast milk intake (8%) and solid food intakes (15%). The children's weight gain also decreased from a presurvey value of 6.9 to 2.1 g . kg-1 . wk-1, i ndicating that their intakes during the food survey were lower than th eir usual intakes. The food-survey methodology was responsible for thi s ''instrument effect.'' Policy decision-makers should be aware that d ata collected with the multiple-day weighed record technique might not reflect African children's usual food intakes.