title: Study on the necessary survey days for energy intake in school children assessed by 7 day survey.
abstract: Theoretically, the longer the period of a nutrition survey, the more reliable the results. However, a long survey can impose a burden on subjects and cause the results to become inaccurate. For adults, a 3 non-consecutive day survey is usually recommended; however, for school children, at least in Japan, it has not been determined whether this is necessary. In this study we conducted a survey of 7 days and tried to find the minimum number of days necessary to determine the energy intake. The subjects were about 300 children aged from 6 to 7, 10 to 11 and 13 to 14 years old in a city in the western part of Japan. The weighing method was used for the school lunch and other meals were surveyed by 24-recalling method. For the 6-7 year-old school children, guardians were asked to keep dietary records. The final number of subjects who were able to complete the 7-day survey was 139. Energy intakes for each weekday were not statistically different (p>0.05) and those for each weekend did not differ (p>0.05). Average energy intakes on weekdays were higher than those on weekend days in 10-11 and 13-14 year-old children. The average intakes of energy in 10-11 and 13-14 year-old children were lower than Japanese estimated energy requirements (EER). However, body weight of more than 90% of subjects was within the normal range. The results suggest that a survey of one weekday is reliable for all weekdays and that of one week-end day is reliable for any weekend day and also indicate the necessity of further studies of EER in rapidly growing children.
authors.affiliation: International Nutrition, Ochanomizu University Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Atsuko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Nobuko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Yoko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Eguchi
authors.forename: Kazue
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kuno
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wakikawa
authors.forename: Nobuko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sarukura
authors.forename: Mina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fukinbara
authors.forename: Shigeru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002648:Child; D002149:Energy Intake; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*