title: A program needs-driven approach to selecting dietary assessment methods for decision-making in food fortification programs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dietary assessment data are essential for designing, monitoring, and evaluating food fortification and other food-based nutrition programs. Planners and managers must understand the validity, usefulness, and cost tradeoffs of employing alternative dietary assessment methods, but little guidance exists.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify and apply criteria to assess the tradeoffs of using alternative dietary methods for meeting fortification programming needs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-five semistructured expert interviews were conducted and literature was reviewed for information on the validity, usefulness, and cost of using 24-hour recalls, Food Frequency Questionnaires/Fortification Rapid Assessment Tool (FFQ/FRAT), Food Balance Sheets (FBS), and Household Consumption and Expenditures Surveys (HCES) for program stage-specific information needs. Criteria were developed and applied to construct relative rankings of the four methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Needs assessment: HCES offers the greatest suitability at the lowest cost for estimating the risk of inadequate intakes, but relative to 24-hour recall compromises validity.
  
  
  METHODS
  HCES should be used to identify vehicles and to estimate coverage and likely impact due to its low cost and moderate-to-high validity. Baseline assessment: 24-hour recall should be applied using a representative sample. Monitoring: A simple, low-cost FFQ can be used to monitor coverage. Impact evaluation: 24-hour recall should be used to assess changes in nutrient intakes. FBS have low validity relative to other methods for all programmatic purposes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Each dietary assessment method has strengths and weaknesses that vary by context and purpose. Method selection must be driven by the program's data needs, the suitability of the methods for the purpose, and a clear understanding of the tradeoffs involved.
authors.affiliation: Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, 150 Harrison Ave., Room 126, Boston, MA 02111, USA. Jennifer.coates@tufts.edu
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Coates
authors.forename: Brooke
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Colaiezzi
authors.forename: John L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Fiedler
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wirth
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lividini
authors.forename: Beatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rogers
mesh_terms: D003657:Decision Making; D004032:Diet; D004034:Diet Surveys; D002149:Energy Intake; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005527:Food, Fortified; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall; D020380:Needs Assessment; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires