You Say Potato, I Say Vegetable; You Say Tomato, I Say Fruit : Cognitive Validity of Food Group–Based Dietary Recall Questions

Background: There is a need for valid, standardized approach for list-based questionnaires to measure food group consumption for indicators of diet quality including dietary diversity. Objectives: A common method for collecting dietary diversity data consists of open-ended food group questions, e.g. “Yesterday, did you eat any vegetables, such as cucumber, cabbage, or celery?” We sought to examine the cognitive validity of open-ended questions that require respondents to categorize foods and closed-ended alternatives using sentinel foods. Methods: Pretesting and 83 cognitive interviews were conducted in 5 languages in São Paulo and New York City in 2018. In structured interviews, respondents were asked to describe their thought processes in answering each question. Their feedback and responses to closed-ended and open-ended food group questions were compared. The Gallup World Poll then piloted 2 versions of the questionnaire in a nationally representative sample of 1000 in Brazil in 2018. Results: Respondents in all settings miscategorized foods when asked open-ended food group questions (0%–82%, depending on the food group), respondents varied in their ability to think of other foods that belonged to specified food groups (35%–50% could think of any items), and open-ended questions presented an additional cognitive burden. There were no significant differences between the results from closed-ended and open-ended questions in the national pilot test. In the context of a multitopic survey, the finalized questionnaire took 3–5 min to answer, had no additional training requirements, and enumerators reported similar ease in administration as modules on other topics. Conclusions: For data collection on food group consumption, open-ended questions requiring respondents to categorize foods present cognitive validity problems. Closed-ended questions using sentinel foods reduce or eliminate ambiguity, presenting lower cognitive burden and greater comprehension. Based on these results, the closed-ended method has been adopted in international survey platforms for measuring dietary diversity and other aspects of diet quality.

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Main Authors: Herforth, Anna W., Sattamini, Isabela F., Olarte, Deborah A., Diego-Rosell, Pablo, Rzepa, Andrew
Format: Article/Letter to editor biblioteca
Language:English
Subjects:24-h recall, DQQ, MDD-W, diet quality questionnaire, dietary assessment, dietary diversity, minimum dietary diversity,
Online Access:https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/you-say-potato-i-say-vegetable-you-say-tomato-i-say-fruit-cogniti
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spelling dig-wur-nl-wurpubs-6397532025-01-21 Herforth, Anna W. Sattamini, Isabela F. Olarte, Deborah A. Diego-Rosell, Pablo Rzepa, Andrew Article/Letter to editor Current Developments in Nutrition (2024) ISSN: 2475-2991 You Say Potato, I Say Vegetable; You Say Tomato, I Say Fruit : Cognitive Validity of Food Group–Based Dietary Recall Questions 2024 Background: There is a need for valid, standardized approach for list-based questionnaires to measure food group consumption for indicators of diet quality including dietary diversity. Objectives: A common method for collecting dietary diversity data consists of open-ended food group questions, e.g. “Yesterday, did you eat any vegetables, such as cucumber, cabbage, or celery?” We sought to examine the cognitive validity of open-ended questions that require respondents to categorize foods and closed-ended alternatives using sentinel foods. Methods: Pretesting and 83 cognitive interviews were conducted in 5 languages in São Paulo and New York City in 2018. In structured interviews, respondents were asked to describe their thought processes in answering each question. Their feedback and responses to closed-ended and open-ended food group questions were compared. The Gallup World Poll then piloted 2 versions of the questionnaire in a nationally representative sample of 1000 in Brazil in 2018. Results: Respondents in all settings miscategorized foods when asked open-ended food group questions (0%–82%, depending on the food group), respondents varied in their ability to think of other foods that belonged to specified food groups (35%–50% could think of any items), and open-ended questions presented an additional cognitive burden. There were no significant differences between the results from closed-ended and open-ended questions in the national pilot test. In the context of a multitopic survey, the finalized questionnaire took 3–5 min to answer, had no additional training requirements, and enumerators reported similar ease in administration as modules on other topics. Conclusions: For data collection on food group consumption, open-ended questions requiring respondents to categorize foods present cognitive validity problems. Closed-ended questions using sentinel foods reduce or eliminate ambiguity, presenting lower cognitive burden and greater comprehension. Based on these results, the closed-ended method has been adopted in international survey platforms for measuring dietary diversity and other aspects of diet quality. en application/pdf https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/you-say-potato-i-say-vegetable-you-say-tomato-i-say-fruit-cogniti 10.1016/j.cdnut.2024.104502 https://edepot.wur.nl/684585 24-h recall DQQ MDD-W diet quality questionnaire dietary assessment dietary diversity minimum dietary diversity https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Wageningen University & Research
institution WUR NL
collection DSpace
country Países bajos
countrycode NL
component Bibliográfico
access En linea
databasecode dig-wur-nl
tag biblioteca
region Europa del Oeste
libraryname WUR Library Netherlands
language English
topic 24-h recall
DQQ
MDD-W
diet quality questionnaire
dietary assessment
dietary diversity
minimum dietary diversity
24-h recall
DQQ
MDD-W
diet quality questionnaire
dietary assessment
dietary diversity
minimum dietary diversity
spellingShingle 24-h recall
DQQ
MDD-W
diet quality questionnaire
dietary assessment
dietary diversity
minimum dietary diversity
24-h recall
DQQ
MDD-W
diet quality questionnaire
dietary assessment
dietary diversity
minimum dietary diversity
Herforth, Anna W.
Sattamini, Isabela F.
Olarte, Deborah A.
Diego-Rosell, Pablo
Rzepa, Andrew
You Say Potato, I Say Vegetable; You Say Tomato, I Say Fruit : Cognitive Validity of Food Group–Based Dietary Recall Questions
description Background: There is a need for valid, standardized approach for list-based questionnaires to measure food group consumption for indicators of diet quality including dietary diversity. Objectives: A common method for collecting dietary diversity data consists of open-ended food group questions, e.g. “Yesterday, did you eat any vegetables, such as cucumber, cabbage, or celery?” We sought to examine the cognitive validity of open-ended questions that require respondents to categorize foods and closed-ended alternatives using sentinel foods. Methods: Pretesting and 83 cognitive interviews were conducted in 5 languages in São Paulo and New York City in 2018. In structured interviews, respondents were asked to describe their thought processes in answering each question. Their feedback and responses to closed-ended and open-ended food group questions were compared. The Gallup World Poll then piloted 2 versions of the questionnaire in a nationally representative sample of 1000 in Brazil in 2018. Results: Respondents in all settings miscategorized foods when asked open-ended food group questions (0%–82%, depending on the food group), respondents varied in their ability to think of other foods that belonged to specified food groups (35%–50% could think of any items), and open-ended questions presented an additional cognitive burden. There were no significant differences between the results from closed-ended and open-ended questions in the national pilot test. In the context of a multitopic survey, the finalized questionnaire took 3–5 min to answer, had no additional training requirements, and enumerators reported similar ease in administration as modules on other topics. Conclusions: For data collection on food group consumption, open-ended questions requiring respondents to categorize foods present cognitive validity problems. Closed-ended questions using sentinel foods reduce or eliminate ambiguity, presenting lower cognitive burden and greater comprehension. Based on these results, the closed-ended method has been adopted in international survey platforms for measuring dietary diversity and other aspects of diet quality.
format Article/Letter to editor
topic_facet 24-h recall
DQQ
MDD-W
diet quality questionnaire
dietary assessment
dietary diversity
minimum dietary diversity
author Herforth, Anna W.
Sattamini, Isabela F.
Olarte, Deborah A.
Diego-Rosell, Pablo
Rzepa, Andrew
author_facet Herforth, Anna W.
Sattamini, Isabela F.
Olarte, Deborah A.
Diego-Rosell, Pablo
Rzepa, Andrew
author_sort Herforth, Anna W.
title You Say Potato, I Say Vegetable; You Say Tomato, I Say Fruit : Cognitive Validity of Food Group–Based Dietary Recall Questions
title_short You Say Potato, I Say Vegetable; You Say Tomato, I Say Fruit : Cognitive Validity of Food Group–Based Dietary Recall Questions
title_full You Say Potato, I Say Vegetable; You Say Tomato, I Say Fruit : Cognitive Validity of Food Group–Based Dietary Recall Questions
title_fullStr You Say Potato, I Say Vegetable; You Say Tomato, I Say Fruit : Cognitive Validity of Food Group–Based Dietary Recall Questions
title_full_unstemmed You Say Potato, I Say Vegetable; You Say Tomato, I Say Fruit : Cognitive Validity of Food Group–Based Dietary Recall Questions
title_sort you say potato, i say vegetable; you say tomato, i say fruit : cognitive validity of food group–based dietary recall questions
url https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/you-say-potato-i-say-vegetable-you-say-tomato-i-say-fruit-cogniti
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