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Respondents’ evaluation of the 24-h dietary recall method (EPIC-Soft) in the EFCOVAL Project

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 65, pages S29–S37 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background:

To improve participation rate, accuracy and respondents’ compliance, it is important to know the respondents’ viewpoint.

Objective:

To evaluate respondents’ preferences and perception about the EPIC-Soft (the software developed to conduct 24-h dietary recalls (24-HDRs) in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Study) 24-HDR interviews and to compare these preferences and perception between population groups (for example, between genders).

Design:

Data were collected in Belgium, Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands and Norway in 2007. Two 24-HDRs (face-to-face and telephone administered) were conducted using EPIC-Soft. An evaluation questionnaire on different study aspects was completed by the respondents.

Setting:

Data were collected in the European Food Consumption Validation Study.

Subjects:

A convenience sample of 600 apparently healthy men and women, 45–65 years old and including all educational levels, were recruited (120 subjects per country). Differences among population groups were compared by means of the χ2-test.

Results:

A total of 585 respondents completed the evaluation questionnaire. In all, 88% experienced problems only to a low degree when answering face-to-face and telephone-administered 24-HDR using EPIC-Soft. A total of 15% would have preferred help of another person during the face-to-face interview in the study center (mainly men: P<0.001). Significantly, more subjects in the Netherlands and in Norway preferred two telephone (instead of face-to-face) interviews compared with the other countries (P<0.001).

Conclusion:

Most subjects only experienced problems to a low degree during the EPIC-Soft interviews. Differences in preferences and capabilities to answer the EPIC-Soft interviews were identified between population groups (for example, gender differences). Therefore, the methods and the design to be used in a survey should be adapted according to the study population, so as to optimize response rate and compliance.

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Acknowledgements

The content of this article reflects only the authors’ views and the Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. The Community funding under the Sixth Framework Program for the EFCOVAL Project is acknowledged (FOOD-CT-2006-022895).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    I Huybrechts, W De Keyzer & S De Henauw

  2. Dietary Exposure Assessment Group, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France

    I Huybrechts, C Casagrande, G Nicolas, S P Crispim, H Freisling & N Slimani

  3. Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    A Geelen & J H de Vries

  4. Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Care, University College Ghent, Ghent, Belgium

    W De Keyzer & S De Henauw

  5. Department of Nutrition, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    I T Lillegaard

  6. National Institute of Public Health, Brno, Czech Republic

    J Ruprich & I Rehurkova

  7. Food intake and Nutritional Epidemiology Unit, French agency for food, environmental and occupational health safety (ANSES), Maisons-Alfort, France

    L Lafay & I Margaritis

  8. National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands

    E C Wilson- van den Hooven & E M Niekerk

  9. INSERM U907 (Laboratoire Dysfonctions Métaboliques et Diabetes, Mécanismes et Approches Thérapeutiques), Faculte de Médecine, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, Nice, France

    I Margaritis

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  1. I Huybrechts
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  2. A Geelen
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  9. L Lafay
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on behalf of the EFCOVAL Consortium

Corresponding author

Correspondence to I Huybrechts.

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Competing interests

JR received consulting fees from the Czech Technology Platform for food and healthy lifestyle. All other authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Contributors: IH, NS, CC, GN, AG and ITL contributed to the development and concept of the respondent evaluation questionnaires. IH was responsible for the statistical analyses. IH, AG, JHdV, CC, GN, WDK, ITL, JR, LL, CW, EMN, IM, IR, SPC, HF, SDH and NS contributed to the conception of the paper. All authors gave input on the drafting of the manuscript, and read and approved the final version.

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Huybrechts, I., Geelen, A., de Vries, J. et al. Respondents’ evaluation of the 24-h dietary recall method (EPIC-Soft) in the EFCOVAL Project. Eur J Clin Nutr 65 (Suppl 1), S29–S37 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2011.85

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