1. ¹Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway
2. ²Unit of Nutrition and Cancer, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France

Correspondence: M Brustad, Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway. E-mail: magritt.brustad@ism.uit.no

^*Guarantor: M Brustad.

^†Contributors: M B wrote the manuscript and performed the statistical analysis. GS contributed to the writing of the paper. NS developed the general concept and design of the EPIC-SOFT program and contributed to the writing of the paper. TB supervised the statistical analysis. EL designed and supervised the study.

Received 14 September 2001; Revised 26 March 2002; Accepted 28 March 2002.

Abstract

Objective: To compare food group intakes in grams, total energy and energy contribution from macronutrients between two random samples of women, using a standardized computer program (EPIC SOFT) with either a face-to-face or a telephone 24 h recall interview design.

Methods: Two groups of Norwegian women living in Tromsø were drawn at random from the Norwegian Women and Cancer Study (NOWAC) cohort. The EPIC SOFT computer program was used to conduct single 24 h dietary recalls either by telephone or face to face. For the latter, 160 women were invited, of whom 111 responded positively (crude response rate=69.4%) and 102 were interviewed. For the telephone option, 180 were invited to participate, 109 responded positively (crude response rate=60.6%) and 103 were interviewed.

Results: The two groups of women were similar with respect to age, body mass index, basal metabolic rate, smoking, education, physical activity and special diet status. No statistically significant difference in dietary intake was found between interviews conducted by telephone and face-to-face, except for 'egg and egg products' (P<0.01), for which intake was higher in the telephone group. Total energy intake differed, but the difference was attributable to one interviewer. The distribution of energy-contributing nutrients was not significantly different between groups, except for reported energy percentage from protein (P=0.02), which was significantly higher in the face-to-face group.

Conclusion: The telephone vs face-to-face interview design did not influence recalled diet when using the EPIC SOFT program.