The association of energy intake bias with psychological scores of women

Objective: Assess the association between reporting bias of dietary energy intake and the behavioral and psychological profiles in women. Design: At baseline a series of questionnaires were administered to 37 wome n, (the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, Weinberger Adjustment Inv entory (WAI), the Eating Disorder inventory (EDI), the Restraint Scale and Sorensen-Stunkard's silhouettes). Subjects received training on how to reco rd dietary records. Subjects recorded three days of dietary records to meas ure energy intake (EI) during a study to determine total energy expenditure (TEE) using doubly labeled water. Reporting accuracy (RA = EI/TEE x 100) w as determined for each subject. Statistical analysis of the data used a mix ed effects model accounting for within subject variability to determine if the psychological scores were associated with reporting accuracy. Setting and subject: Women were recruited with local advertisements in Tucs on, Arizona. The women had a mean (+/- 1 s.d.) age of 43.6 +/- 9.3 yrs, bod y mass index (BMI) of 28.7 +/- 8.5 kg/m(2) and total body fat (%TBF) of 31. 9 +/- 7.3%. Results: Age and %TBF were significantly and inversely associated with RA. Furthermore, Social Desirability was negatively associated with RA. Body di ssatisfaction and associating a smaller body size than one's own as being m ore healthy were also associated with a lower RA. Conclusions: These results suggest that Social Desirability and self image of body shape are associated with RA. Modifications in subject training may reduce the effect of these factors on RA.