title: The use of a personal digital assistant for dietary self-monitoring does not improve the validity of self-reports of energy intake.
abstract: Underreporting of energy intake is a pervasive problem and resistant to improvement, especially among people with overweight and obesity. The goal of this study was to investigate whether the use of a personal digital assistant (PDA) for dietary self-monitoring would reduce underreporting prevalence and improve the validity of self-reported energy intake. Adults with overweight and obesity (n=61, 92% women, mean age 48.2 years, mean body mass index 32.3) were provided with a PalmZire 21 (Palm, Inc, Sunnyvale, CA) loaded with Calorie King's Diet Diary software (version 3.2.2, 2002, Family Health Network, Costa Mesa, CA). Subjects participated in a 24-week in-person behavioral weight control program and were asked to self-monitor their diet and exercise habits using the PDA. Basal metabolic rate and physical activity level were estimated at baseline. Energy intake from 7-day electronic food records were collected within the first month of the weight-control program. As subjects were actively losing weight, Bandini's adjustments were used to correct self-reported energy intake for weight loss. In this group, where 41% of the subjects were categorized as low-energy reporters, the use of a PDA did not improve validity of energy reporting when compared to what is reported in the literature.
authors.affiliation: University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA.
authors.forename: Bethany Ann
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Yon
authors.forename: Rachel K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Harvey-Berino
authors.forename: Beth Casey
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Gold
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D034201:Computers, Handheld / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002149:Energy Intake; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D010349:Patient Compliance; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012650:Self Disclosure; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015431:Weight Loss