Use of electronic visual recording to aid assessment of dietary intake of Australian Aboriginal children living in remote communities

Objective: To assess the feasibility of using electronic visual recording in combination with food records to evaluate dietary intake in Aboriginal infants and children. 

Methods: All foods and drinks consumed by the child over four consecutive days were recorded in daily food records and pictures or videos. Feasibility was assessed by determining i) proportion of meals reported to be consumed; ii) cost of data collection; iii) day-to-day variation in energy intake and; iv) acceptability of the method. 

Results: Dietary intake data was collected from three girls and five boys aged 11 months to eight years, five over four days and three during one day, at a cost of $3,300 per child. One-third of the 89 meals reported to be consumed through the food records were electronically recorded. Most photographs were taken in the first two days with the number of meals electronically recorded decreasing each day over the four-day period. There was a large day-to-day variation in energy intake. 

Conclusions: Use of electronic recording to aid individual usual dietary intake data collection was feasible. Collection periods spread over 1-2 weeks may be more appropriate due to the large variance in day-to-day dietary intake.