Energy intake of swedish overweight and obese children is underestimated using a diet history interview

Abstract

Estimating energy intake (El) of a child by using a diet history interview (DHI) method may be a challenge because of difficulty for the child to remember what has been eaten as well as to report portion sizes. The aim of this research was to validate reported EI from a DH I in children classified as overweight or obese by comparing the reported EI to total energy expenditure (TEE) measured by 2 objective measures. Eighty-five 10.5- ± 1.1-y-old overweight and obese children, with help from 1 or 2 parents, reported their El 2 wk retrospectively in a DHL Reported El was compared with TEE, as measured by SenseWear armband (n = 85) and the doubly-labeled water (DLW) method (n = 21), during the same period as the DHL Reported El was underestimated by 14% when validated against both the armband and DLW method. Underestimation did not differ between boys and girls. However, the El of obese children was underestimated by 22%, which is twice the rate as for the overweight children (95% CI: 0.55,3.08). Underestimated El was negatively correlated with BMI (r= -0.38; P= <0.01) as well as age (r= -0.21; P= 0.05). El is underestimated to a higher extent among children with higher BMI and higher age when using a DHI method. The findings show the importance of validating dietary intake of children in general and in overweight and obese children in particular. © 2009 American Society for Nutrition.