Do children eat what they say? Validity of intended food choices among Native American school children.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the agreement between school children's intended food choices and observed food choices.


METHODS
Native American students in the second through fifth grade completed a questionnaire that asked them to select from 10 paired food choices for a given meal or snack. Three weeks later students chose among foods identical to those on the questionnaire as part of their usual school lunch or breakfast over three consecutive days; afternoon snacks were also offered.


RESULTS
Agreement between students' intended food choices and observed food choices was examined across 10 food pairs. The composite kappa coefficient between intended and observed food choices was 0.09 (95% confidence interval 0.06, 0.012), including virtually no agreement above that expected by chance. There were no differences in agreement by sex or grade.


CONCLUSIONS
Intended food choices were not significantly associated with observed food choices. It is unclear whether intended food choices reflect nutrition knowledge, socially desirable responses, food preferences, or some other dimension of eating behavior. Although responsive to school-based nutrition interventions, the interpretation of changes in intended food choices must be clarified in future research.
Toporoff
E G
EG
Division of Epidemiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55454-1015, USA.
French
S A
SA
Story
M
M
Himes
J H
JH
Snyder
M P
MP
DuBray
M
M
Rock
B H
BH
Hunsberger
S
S
D002648:Child; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology; D005522:Food Services; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American; D008297:Male; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013023:South Dakota; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires