Resumo

MONTERREY, Pedro et al. Diet variability in university young women: the influence on dietary evaluation criteria. Perspect Nut Hum [online]. 2009, vol.11, n.1, pp.11-24. ISSN 0124-4108.

There are no many publications analyzing daily diet variability, because of data collection in multiple days is very difficult, and validity of dietary data collection methods such as 24 hours recalls or food questionnaires depend on this variability. Daily food intake of 43 students from the university was evaluated during 28 days, using a self report food consumption diary. Participants were trained in data collection and weekly controls were done to verify the accuracy of data. A strong heterogeneity between variances in energy and nutrients intake was found; this means that the data collection methods applied in clinical practice and research are incorrect. These methods are using to collect data in a range of 1 to 7 days, but the most common is to get dietary information in 2-3 days. The outcomes of this study showed that this food collecting data model doesn’t match with population’s food variability patterns. Therefore it is necessary to consider a probability distribution in order to represents the population’s food habits variability. Differences in variability had an important effect on the number of days that are needed to estimate individual consumption patterns.

Palavras-chave : diet; coefficient of variation; food frequency questionnaire; checklist; nutritional epidemiology; variability; diet surveys.

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