Nutrition Knowledge and Behavioral Assessment of Participants of Aid for Families with Dependent Children: Telephone Vs Mail Data Collection Methods

“Spend Less. Eat Well. Feel Better.” (SLEWFB) is a 3-hour intervention designed to improve food resource management ability, health, and food security status. This program efficacy trial targeted clients seeking financial aid to prevent homelessness. A randomized controlled design using a 1-hour food safety intervention as a control group was used. Four variables were targeted over a 30-day time period: (1) food security status, (2) basic financial management, (3) average fruit and vegetable intake, and (4) goal accomplishment. Repeated-measures analysis of variance and chi-square analysis were used. Compared with control group participants (n = 47), SLEWFB graduates (n = 48) were less likely to have te choose between food and rent expenses (X² = 16.5, P = .00005) and improved their fruit and vegetable intake (F of time = 8.03, P < .006) regardless of financial assistance received. The findings imply that further investigation of coupling financial aid with effective life skills education is warranted.

Objective To compare 24-hour dietary recalls collected over the telephone to in-person recalls collected in the 1994-1996 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII).

Design Trained interviewers collected 24-hour dietary recalls over the telephone using the multiple-pass approach. These results were compared to in-person interviews from a pooled subsample of CSFII respondents.

Subjects/setting List-assisted random-digit dialing was used to identify 700 women between the ages of 20 and 49 years. One eligible woman per household was selected to participate.

Statistical analyses Approximate t tests to examine differences in average nutrient and energy intakes were conducted on weighted data.

Results The reported intakes of most nutrients in the current 24-hour dietary recalls collected over the telephone were significantly higher than those reported in the 1994 and 1995 CSFII, but there were no significant differences between the telephone survey and 1996 CSFII results. The 24-hour dietary recalls collected over the telephone yielded consistently greater mean nutrient intake per respondent compared with a comparable pooled subsample from the 1994,1995, and 1996 CSFII. Generally, no significant differences were found in the food group data between the telephone survey and the CSFII survey. Mean dietary intakes reported by the comparable CSFII subsample increased from 1994 to 1996.

Applications Collecting 24-hour dietary recalls over the telephone is a practical and valid data collection tool for use in national food consumption surveys. J Am Diet Assoc. 1999;99:1406–1411.