THE 24-HOUR RECALL FOR SENEGALESE WEANLINGS - A VALIDATION EXERCISE

Objective: In Africa, where growth retardation is highly prevalent, th e use of expensive and time-consuming diet assessment techniques is a major obstacle to the collection of dietary data on large samples of c hildren. The 24-h recall could be a valuable alternative. Its validity and reproducibility were assessed by comparison with the precise weig hing technique. Design & Subjects: Intakes of complementary foods of 4 5 Senegalese weanlings, aged 11-18 months, were estimated with both te chniques on the same days. Results: There was neither a level-dependen t nor a systematic bias with the 24-h recall for energy and macronutri ent intakes. Mean differences between techniques were <11% of mean int akes. Rank order correlations (r) ranged from 0.60 to 0.81 for energy and macronutrients. However, the analysis by food group showed that th e 24-h recall was less precise than the reference, especially for food s from the household common pot (r ranged from 0.31 to 0.61 for rice, oil and fish). In particular, measuring rice intake as a number of 'ha ndfuls' was not satisfactory. The technique needs further improvement for these foods. Conclusion: Since it provides unbiased estimates of w eanlings' intakes, the 24-h recall can be used for diet surveys of gro ups of children. Its lack of precision, which could cause attenuation in epidemiological studies, can be compensated by increasing the numbe r of days of survey. This study suggests that a precision equivalent t o that of a 1-day weighed survey could be obtained with two 24-h recal ls, at a considerably lower cost. Sponsorship: French Ministry of Rese arch, grant no. 87G0517. Descriptors: Africa, dietary methodology, 24- h recall, preschool children