Assessment of Dietary Intake Using Food Photography and Video Recording in Free-Living Young Adults: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Background: Conventional methods of dietary assessment are prone to recall bias and place burden on participants.

Objective: Our aim was to compare the performance of image-based dietary assessment (IBDA), including food photography (FP) and video recording (VR), with the criterion of weighed food records (WFR).

Design: In this comparative study, participants captured meals using FP and VR before and after consumption, over 2 days. Food type and portion size were assessed using the images and videos. Energy and nutrient intakes (mean of 2 days) were compared against WFR.

Participants/settings: Eighty-four healthy adults (mean [standard deviation] age = 29 [8] years), recruited through advertisement in Glasgow, UK, between January and August 2016 were enrolled in the study. Eighty participants (95%) (mean [standard deviation] age = 28 [7] years) completed the study and were included in the analysis.

Main outcome measures: Agreement in estimated energy and nutrient intake between WFR and IBDA. The IBDA method feasibility was evaluated using a questionnaire. Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability were assessed.

Statistical analysis performed: The performance of the IBDA methods against WFR and their inter and intra-rater reliability were tested with Bland-Altman plots and Spearman correlations. Intra-class agreement between methods was assessed using κ statistics.

Results: Inter-rater reliability was strong for both IBDA methods in estimating energy intake (ρ-coefficients: FP = 0.80; VR = 0.81). There was no difference in the agreement between the 2 assessors. Intra-rater reliability was high. FP and VR underestimated energy intake by a mean (95% agreement limits) of -13.3% (-56.4% and 29.7%) and -4.5% (-45.5% and 36.4%), respectively. IBDA demonstrated moderate-to-strong correlations in nutrient intake ranking, median ρ-coefficients for all nutrients: FP = 0.73 (interquartile range, 0.09) and VR = 0.82 (interquartile range, 0.02). Inter-class agreement of IBDA methods was moderate compared with the WFR in energy intake estimation. IBDA was more practical and enjoyable than WFR.

Conclusions: IBDA and VR in particular demonstrated a moderate-to-strong ability to rank participants' dietary intake, and considerable group and inter-class agreement compared with the WFR. However, IBDA was found to be unsuitable for assessment in individuals.

Keywords: Dietary assessment; Food photography; Image-based dietary assessment; Video recording; Weighed food records.