Assessing Energy Intake in Daily Life: Signal-Contingent Smartphone Application Versus Event-Contingent Paper and Pencil Estimated Diet Diary

OBJECTIVES: Investigating between-meal snack intake and its associated determinants such as emotions and stress presents challenges because both vary from moment to moment throughout the day. A smartphone application (app), was developed to map momentary between-meal snack intake and its associated determinants in the context of daily life. The aim of this study was to compare energy intake reported with the signal-contingent app and reported with an event-contingent paper and pencil diet diary. METHODS: In a counterbalanced, cross-sectional design, adults (N = 46) from the general population reported between-meal snack intake during four consecutive days with the app and four consecutive days with a paper and pencil diet diary. A 10-day interval was applied between the two reporting periods. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted to compare both instruments on reported momentary and daily energy intake from snacks. RESULTS: Results showed no significant difference (B = 11.84, p = .14) in momentary energy intake from snacks between the two instruments. However, a significant difference (B = –105.89, p < .01) was found on energy intake from total daily snack consumption. CONCLUSIONS: As at momentary level both instruments were comparable in assessing energy intake, research purposes will largely determine the sampling procedure of choice. When momentary associations across time are the interest of study, a signal-contingent sampling procedure may be a suitable method. Since the compared instruments differed on two main features (i.e. the sampling procedure and the device used) it is difficult to disentangle which instrument was the most accurate in assessing daily energy intake.