Evaluation of food photographs for 24-hour recall method

The purpose of this study was to develop a visual aid to improve and increase accuracy of the 24-hour recall method. This aid in the form of a booklet, consists of life-sized photographs of common Malaysian foods, accompanied by the weight of its edible portion and nutrient values. These photographs used together with the recall method were tested against the weighed record method for its validity. For this preliminary test, a total of 23 photographs of food items were tested. Sixty healthy adult volunteers were selected as respondents for the test. These respondents were divided into 2 groups. Each group was given either a simple or complicated menus. The respondents were served 3 test meals: breakfast, lunch and tea. Each food item served and plate waste were weighed and recorded. The 24-hour recall was conducted the day following the weighed record day. The results of the paired t-tests indicated no significant difference in group's mean weights of food intake between the weighed record and recalled method for 13(57%) of the foods tested. The correlation coefficients between the two methods showed a moderate to strong positive relationships for 17 out of the 23 food photographs tested (ranged from r=0.49-0.92, p<0.01). Analysis on the nutrient intake for simple menus showed high correlation coefficients between both methods for all nutrients tested, r=0.62-0.95, p<0.01. For the complicated menus, the correlation coefficients were slightly lower than the simple menus, ranging from r=0.38-0.71, P<0.0l. Except for the fat intake in the complicated menus, all the correlation coefficients between the two methods reached 0.5 and above for both types of menus.