Dietary Recall Questionnaire

Abstract

The Dietary Recall Questionnaire (DRQ) is a brief, 23-item self-completion questionnaire designed primarily for assessing the nutritional intake and dietary patterns of children aged 9 to 11 years. Developed by Moore and colleagues (2007), this instrument focuses on capturing consumption frequency of key food groups, including breakfast foods, snacks, and fruits and vegetables. Its primary utility lies in evaluating children’s diets in research settings and measuring the efficacy of dietary interventions aimed at improving childhood health.

Keywords

Dietary Recall Questionnaire, Nutritional intake, Childhood diet, Self-report, Dietary assessment, Psychometrics, Validation, Children’s health.

Authors

Moore, Tapper, Murphy, Clark, Lynch, Moore

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Dietary Recall Questionnaire is to provide a quick and efficient method for quantifying the consumption of specific food items in pre-adolescent children. Given the challenges inherent in accurately measuring nutritional intake in this age group, the DRQ utilizes activity-related questions as contextual prompts to enhance the accuracy of dietary recall.

This measure serves as a valuable tool for researchers investigating the link between dietary habits and educational or health outcomes in childhood. Furthermore, it is explicitly designed to track changes in diet over time, making it suitable for evaluating the effectiveness of public health or school-based dietary interventions.

Construct

The DRQ primarily measures the construct of Recent Dietary Behavior, specifically focusing on the frequency of consumption of targeted food groups (e.g., breakfast, snacks, fruits, and vegetables) over a short, defined period (typically the previous 24 hours or week). This construct is critical for understanding short-term dietary compliance and risk factors associated with poor nutritional intake.

The use of contextual prompts within the questionnaire attempts to mitigate common recall biases associated with self-report measures in young populations, thereby yielding a more accurate reflection of the child’s typical eating patterns relevant to childhood health promotion.

Validity

The validity of the Dietary Recall Questionnaire was rigorously investigated in the foundational study by Moore et al. (2007). Validation efforts typically involved comparing the self-reported data from the DRQ against more objective or established measures, such as 24-hour recalls conducted by trained researchers or food diaries. The authors aimed to establish criterion and construct validity.

Specifically, the study assessed whether the scores derived from the 23 items demonstrated appropriate correlations with external indicators of dietary quality. Strong evidence of criterion validity is necessary to confirm that the questionnaire accurately reflects actual food consumption patterns, especially concerning critical indicators like fruit and vegetable intake, which are often targets of public health campaigns.

Reliability

The reliability of the DRQ, a cornerstone of its psychometrics, was examined primarily through test-retest procedures, ensuring that the measure yields consistent results when administered to the same child under stable conditions across a short interval. High test-retest reliability indicates that the scores are stable over time, reducing measurement error inherent in self-report.

While the internal consistency (e.g., Cronbach’s alpha) might be less relevant for a heterogeneous list of food items than for a single psychological construct, the reliability assessment confirms the measure’s suitability for use in longitudinal studies tracking dietary changes in 9 to 11-year-old children.

Factor Analysis

Although the original paper by Moore et al. (2007) primarily focused on validation against external criteria, factor analysis is often employed in dietary questionnaires to determine underlying dimensions or patterns in food consumption. For the DRQ, a factor analysis would typically explore whether the 23 items naturally cluster into distinct subscales, such as ‘Healthy Foods’ (fruits, vegetables) and ‘Unhealthy Snacks’ (high-sugar/high-fat items).

If performed, the results of an exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis would provide crucial information regarding the scale’s internal structure and inform researchers on how best to score and interpret the derived indices related to specific aspects of nutritional intake.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-completion measure; Dietary assessment tool

Format: Brief, 23-item questionnaire utilizing structured questions and activity-related prompts.

Language Available: English (Original development language).

Population Group: Children and pre-adolescents.

Age Group: 9–11 years old.

Population Details: Originally validated using primary school children in the United Kingdom.

Test Methodology: The child self-reports consumption frequency or quantity of specific foods. The methodology incorporates contextual prompts (e.g., “What did you eat after playing football?”) to aid recall, minimizing reliance on abstract memory and improving accuracy of the Dietary Recall Questionnaire.

Keywords

Dietary intervention, School-based research, Food frequency, Psychometrics, Self-report measure, Child development, Nutritional epidemiology.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A

Correspondence Address: N/A

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Dietary Recall Questionnaire was formally validated and published in 2007. The measure is often made available for academic research purposes, though specific permissions for commercial use or modification should be sought directly from the corresponding author, Dr. G.F. Moore, or the associated research institution. The current web link suggests the tool is accessible for non-commercial use, consistent with many academic instruments developed through public funding.

Reference’s

• Moore, G.F., Tapper, K., Murphy, S., Clark, R., Lynch, R. & Moore, L. (2007). Validation of a self-completion measure of breakfast foods, snacks and fruit and vegetables consumed by 9-11 year old children. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 61, 420-430.
• The official web link to the tool is available here: Dietary Recall Questionnaire.

Items of the Dietary Recall Questionnaire

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The specific 23 items of the Dietary Recall Questionnaire were not provided in the original source content. Researchers interested in the exact wording and structure of the items should consult the primary validation paper (Moore et al., 2007) or the provided web link to the tool.