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  • Brief Communication
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Food intake reporting bias among adolescents with depression

Abstract

There is a growing body of research supporting adjunctive dietary interventions to improve depressive symptoms. Quantifying the level of dietary intake reporting accuracy is important when assessing dietary intervention efficacy. The current study assesses dietary intake reporting accuracy among children and adolescents clinically diagnosed with depression. Forty-six participants (87.0% female) with clinically diagnosed depression were included in this analysis with a mean age of 15.04 ± 1.52 years. The reporting accuracy of energy intake was determined using a single dietary recall and the McCrory equations. Thirty (64.8%) participants were categorized as plausible reporters, 16 (35.2%) as under-reporters and none were over-reporters. Mean energy estimates were misreported by −1192.618 ± 817.87 kcal and were proportional to caloric intake. The only covariate significantly associated with misreporting was obesity/overweight. Misreporting was not associated with depressive symptom burden. Depressive symptomology was not associated with under-reporting, indicating that adolescents with clinically diagnosed depression are able to report dietary intake at accuracy levels comparable to adolescents in community samples.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the participants of the study; Reva Schachter and Marlena Colasanto who were part of the initial protocol development and assisted with data collection; and Stephanie Perruzza, Arij Alarachi and Alicia Segovia who helped with data collection. This work was supported by Brain and Behavior Research Foundation: [grant number 26400]; Canadian Institute of Health Research: [grant number 409491]. Susan C Campisi is supported in part by the SickKids RestraComp Postdoctoral Award and by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) grant number 409491.

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Contributions

SCC conceptualized the study design and analysis plan, conducted the analysis, wrote and revised all drafts of the manuscript. KTC assisted with the analysis plan and reviewed the manuscript. DJK provided senior supervision for all aspects of the study. All authors assisted in data interpretation, critically reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daphne J. Korczak.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval

Informed consent/assent was obtained for all participants. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants >12 years of age. Written assent was obtained from children who are <12 years old, or not able to consent for themselves, as well as parental consent. Ethics approval was granted by the Research Ethics Board at SickKids Hospital, Toronto Canada #1000054479.

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Campisi, S.C., Cost, K.T. & Korczak, D.J. Food intake reporting bias among adolescents with depression. Eur J Clin Nutr 76, 904–906 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-021-01035-9

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