title: Assessment of a narrative approach to the diet history.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the quality of a narrative form diet history (DH).
  
  
  METHODS
  Reproducibility assessed with data obtained at 6-week intervals. Criterion validity assessed using energy intake to estimated energy expenditure (EI:BMR) cutoff limits. Relative validity assessed by comparing results for energy and macronutrients at baseline and month 2 of an intervention trial with those obtained from 3-day food records (FR).
  
  
  METHODS
  Community-based dietary intervention trials for the study of metabolic syndrome in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Reproducibility: 43 healthy female volunteers. Mean age 58.72 years (range 50-67), mean body mass index (BMI) 25.79 (range 21-36).
  
  
  RESULTS
  45 healthy volunteers--18 males (mean age 46.9 years, mean BMI 27.8), and 27 females (mean age 45.7 years, mean BMI 26.2), attending a study on the effect of diet on metabolic variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Reproducibility: wide SD values indicated a high degree of intraindividual variation, but correlation coefficients were comparable to those of similar studies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  underreporting was inconsistent with individuals, but was greater with the DH than the FR at each stage of the dietary trial (significant at month 1, P < 0.01). Underreporters indicated higher intakes of protein during the trial (P < 0.05). Weaker associations were found between the DH and FR data for energy values, but there was strong agreement for per cent fat consumed as saturated and monounsaturated fat at each stage of the trial.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The narrative form DH performs as well as standardized interviews, but more work needs to be done at the micro level, focusing on aspects which deal with foods likely to be underreported in the particular study context. This can be achieved through continued research using combined methodologies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Science, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. linda_tapsell@uow.edu.au
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Tapsell
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pettengell
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Denmeade
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004041:Dietary Fats; D002149:Energy Intake; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D009753:Nutritive Value; D015588:Observer Variation; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats