title: Children's food intake: a comparison of children's and parents' reports.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In longitudinal studies, parents are the most accurate source of information on young children's dietary intake; for older children, questioning children themselves may be more appropriate. However, if parental reports for young children and self-reports of older children are to be used in the same analyses, the measures must be comparable.
  
  
  METHODS
  During school hours, fourth and sixth graders in 14 Flemish (Belgium) primary schools completed an online 15-item food frequency questionnaire with a retest questionnaire one to two weeks later; parents completed a paper-and-pencil or online questionnaire. Test-retest data were available for 286 children; children's tests could be matched to parents' reports for 275 children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  On average, test-retest correlations were 0.68 (grade 4: 0.63; grade 6: 0.71) and correlations between children's and parents' reports were 0.44 (grade 4: 0.39; grade 6: 0.49). No systematic differences were found between the test and retest. Comparison of children's and parents' reports resulted in significant differences for six of the 15 items.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Low consensus between parents' and children's reports for several items may impede comparisons at a group level. Additionally, the results indicate more optimal dietary assessment in sixth graders.
authors.affiliation: Ghent University.
authors.forename: Carine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vereecken
authors.affiliation: Ghent University.
authors.forename: Lea
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maes
mesh_terms: D001530:Belgium; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires