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Title: Qualitative analysis of the contributions of nutritionists to the development of an online instrument for monitoring the food intake of schoolchildren

Author
item DAVIES, VANESSA - University Of Santa Catarina
item KUPEK, EMIL - University Of Santa Catarina
item DE ASSIS, MARY - University Of Santa Catarina
item ENGEL, RAQUEL - University Of Santa Catarina
item DA COSTA, FELIPE - University Of Santa Catarina
item DI PIETRO, PATRICIA - University Of Santa Catarina
item NATAL, SONIA - University Of Santa Catarina
item Thompson, Deborah - Debbe
item BARANOWSKI, TOM - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)

Submitted to: Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/10/2013
Publication Date: 1/1/2015
Citation: Davies, V.F., Kupek, E., de Assis, M.A., Engel, R., Da Costa, F.F., Di Pietro, P.F., Natal, S., Thompson, D.J., Baranowski, T. 2015. Qualitative analysis of the contributions of nutritionists to the development of an online instrument for monitoring the food intake of schoolchildren. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics. 28(Suppl 1):65-72.

Interpretive Summary: Diet assessment among children can be very expensive to do and have substantial error. Self administered computer based measures using pictures of foods may overcome some of these problems. Consumo Alimentar e Atividade Fisica de Escolares (CAAFE) is a software system for enabling Brazilian children 7-10 years of age to report their previous day's dietary intake in a simple, easily completed manner. To design CAAFE, qualitative research in the form of focus group discussions was conducted with 24 dietitians familiar with Brazilian children's diet. These dietitians suggested that CAAFE needs to facilitate report of both healthy and unhealthy foods; made suggestions for enhancing the user interface; identified multiple uses for CAAFE reported child diets; and expressed concerns on problems likely to be encountered in developing the software and how to minimize those problems. To enhance the accuracy and usefulness of the CAAFE software system, all these comments were addressed in the development.

Technical Abstract: The Consumo Alimentar e Atividade Fisica de Escolares (CAAFE) questionnaire is an online research tool that has been developed to enable the self-report of physical activity and diet by Brazilian schoolchildren aged 7–10 years. Formative research was conducted with nutritionists during the development of the web-based questionnaire. The suggestions and insights obtained were used to design a tool to monitor schoolchildren's food consumption based on the concept of healthy and unhealthy food indicators. The present study aimed to report the focus group discussions conducted with nutritionists concerning the CAAFE questionnaire. Focus group discussions were conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire, and these were then analyzed thematically. Twenty-four nutritionists participated (four focus groups; average per group: six people); the majority (n = 22) had experience with 7–10-year-old children. Four themes emerged: (i) healthy and unhealthy food indicators; (ii) suggestions for the online instrument; (iii) potential applications; and (iv) challenges for its construction. Comments made by nutritionists enabled the construction of an instrument that is able to answer questions related to food consumption in schools and at home.