Facilitating the assessment of eating habits in community settings

Poor eating habits constitute the main risk factor for chronic disease among Canadians. Ensuring the entire population can eat a balanced diet is therefore a public health issue, especially for people living in adverse socioeconomic circumstances who are part of community settings that don’t have access to tools to effectively consider the eating habits of their clienteles.

With that in mind, the research teams led by Benoît Lamarche at the Centre NUTRISS – Nutrition, santé et société at Université Laval set out to develop a tailored evaluation tool.

In 2014, in response to the needs of the nutrition research community, the groups created R24W, the first web-based tool to compile detailed assessments of the eating habits of Québec populations. Since the tool’s release, more than 50 researchers have used it as part of some 100 projects. Now, the Centre NUTRISS is working to adapt R24W to evaluate eating habits in community settings that serve disadvantaged populations.

To that end, NUTRISS joined forces with Axelys to conduct surveys with community workers responsible for collective food-related projects to gauge their interest in using R24W and identify new features that would better meet their needs. The results highlighted the challenges of the low literacy and often limited web access of target clienteles for the optimal use of R24W. Developments and adaptations are currently being implemented to remedy the situation. Even so, preliminary data show the depth of the gaps in overall food quality between disadvantaged groups and the general population.

References:

Lafrenière, J., Lamarche, B., Laramée, C., Robitaille, J. et Lemieux, S. (2017). Validation of a newly automated web-based 24-hour dietary recall using fully controlled feeding studies. BMC Nutrition, 3 :34. doi: 10.1186/s40795-017-0153-3

Lafrenière, J., Laramée, C., Robitaille, J., Lamarche, B. et Lemieux, S. (2018). Assessing the relative validity of a new, web-based, self-administered 24 h dietary recall in a French-Canadian population. Public Health Nutrition, 21(15), 2744-2752. doi: 10.1017/S1368980018001611