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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the acceptability and usability of an online training to prepare Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) educators to collect 24-hr dietary recalls using the Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour Dietary Assessment Tool (ASA24). Fifty-eight educators in 17 states were recruited to take the training; 29 completed the online training, assisted two individuals in completing a 24-hr recall using ASA24, and completed a survey about their experiences. The sample included 26 respondents. The majority (n = 16; 61.5%) of the sample was EFNEP educators with college education. The majority of the respondents indicated that they found the readings and videos acceptable for learning (n = 21; 80.7%). Half of the participants (n = 13) felt prepared to collect data using ASA24. The majority (n = 22; 84.6%) had positive feedback about the training content. The training may be acceptable for preparing EFNEP educators with at least some college education to collect 24-hr recalls using ASA24. Because of potential bias due to self-selection and nonresponse, the training has been revised and is now intended to be used to train trainers of EFNEP paraprofessionals.

Background A growing interest exists in using glycemic index and glycemic load as potentially important exposures in investigations of risk for a variety of chronic diseases. Objective We added values for glycemic index and glycemic load to the nutrient database of a commonly used dietary assessment instrument, the Diet History Questionnaire (DHQ). Design The nutrient database for the DHQ is based on 4,200 individual foods reported by adults in the 1994-1996 US Department of Agriculture Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII). This list was condensed into 225 nutritionally similar groupings of individual foods. Using published glycemic index values we assigned glycemic index values to each of the individual CSFII foods in these food groups. In cases where CSFII foods did not correspond tightly to foods with published glycemic index values, we used decision criteria to assign glycemic index values. We then calculated sex- and serving size-specific glycemic load for each of the 225 food groups using the weighted mean method. Quality assessments were made to help evaluate the success of this method for assigning glycemic load values. Results Seventy-one percent of the top carbohydrate-contributing food groups had in excess of 90% of the CSFII mentions linked directly to a published glycemic index value (ie, no imputation was required), and 100% of these food groups had at least 50% of total mentions linked directly. Conclusions Using this method, it is now possible to use DHQ responses to assess the associations between reported glycemic load and glycemic index and risk of many chronic diseases in epidemiologic studies. J Am Diet Assoc. 2006;106:393-402.

The article offers information on a study that aims to explores the effect of child-friendly (CF) adaptations of the National Cancer Institute's Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour Dietary Recall (ASA24) on estimates of nutrient intake. The study focuses on 120 children who entered their previous day's intake using ASA24. It reveals the feasibility of implementing the stimulation of CF.

Food frequency questionnaires (FFQ), like the Diet History Questionnaire (DHQ) developed by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), are commonly used to estimate long-term total daily energy and nutrient intake. However, the methodology used to create the database to determine dietary intake varies by FFQ and is often a “black box” to researchers. This brief communication discusses how we added values for carotenoids (alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, lutein/zeaxanthin, lycopene) to the NCI DHQ database. The NCI DHQ database is based on intake of 4220 foods from 24-h dietary recalls of adult participants in the 1994–96 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII). These 4220 foods are categorized into 255 food groups consistent with line items on the NCI DHQ. Given the extensive number of foods from CSFII used to create the NCI DHQ database, we used the University of Minnesota Nutrition Data System for Research (NDS-R) that has values for the carotenoids in μg/100 g units for approximately 18,000 foods, 8000 brand name products, and many ethnic foods. We matched foods in the NDS-R database to the 4220 CSFII foods according to the detailed description of the foods and their energy and nutrient content. We re-evaluated the matches of certain foods that had estimates of energy, fat, and other nutrients from the NDS-R that differed from the respective CSFII values. Data files with the latest NCI DHQ database that contains the carotenoids are now available at http://riskfactor.cancer.gov/DHQ. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is developing an automated, self-administered 24-hour dietary recall (ASA24) application to collect and code dietary intake data. The goal of the ASA24 development is to create a web-based dietary interview based on the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Automated Multiple Pass Method (AMPM) instrument currently used in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The ASA24 food list, detail probes, and portion probes were drawn from the AMPM instrument; portion-size pictures from Baylor College of Medicine''s Food Intake Recording Software System (FIRSSt) were added; and the food code/portion code assignments were linked to the USDA Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS). The requirements that the interview be self-administered and fully auto-coded presented several challenges as the AMPM probes and responses were linked with the FNDDS food codes and portion pictures. This linking was accomplished through a “food pathway,” or the sequence of steps that leads from a respondent''s initial food selection, through the AMPM probes and portion pictures, to the point at which a food code and gram weight portion size are assigned. The ASA24 interview database that accomplishes this contains more than 1100 food probes and more than 2 million food pathways and will include about 10,000 pictures of individual foods depicting up to 8 portion sizes per food. The ASA24 will make the administration of multiple days of recalls in large-scale studies economical and feasible. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Background: A growing interest exists in using glycemic index and glycemic load as potentially important exposures in investigations of risk for a variety of chronic diseases. Objective: We added values for glycemic index and glycemic load to the nutrient database of a commonly used dietary assessment instrument, the Diet History Questionnaire (DHQ). Design: The nutrient database for the DHQ is based on 4,200 individual foods reported by adults in the 1994-1996 US Department of Agriculture Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII). This list was condensed into 225 nutritionally similar groupings of individual foods. Using published glycemic index values we assigned glycemic index values to each of the individual CSFII foods in these food groups. In cases where CSFII foods did not correspond tightly to foods with published glycemic index values, we used decision criteria to assign glycemic index values. We then calculated sex- and serving size-specific glycemic load for each of the 225 food groups using the weighted mean method. Quality assessments were made to help evaluate the success of this method for assigning glycemic load values. Results: Seventy-one percent of the top carbohydrate-contributing food groups had in excess of 90% of the CSFII mentions linked directly to a published glycemic index value (ie, no imputation was required), and 100% of these food groups had at least 50% of total mentions linked directly. Conclusions: Using this method, it is now possible to use DHQ responses to assess the associations between reported glycemic load and glycemic index and risk of many chronic diseases in epidemiologic studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]