Objectives
To collect infant dietary data using an electronic four-pass 24 hour recall survey.
Methods
Dietary intakes of 185 infants aged 8-29 months living in rural western Kenya were collected from respondents randomly selected from the WASH Benefits Trial. Dietary intakes were collected using an electronic four-pass 24 hour recall survey programmed in SurveyCTO and uploaded onto a Samsung tablet. A list of 102 local foods and recipes, pulled from a food frequency questionnaire conducted in the same population, were pre-programmed into the survey. The standardized recipes were collected from a Kenyan and Ugandan recipe database. Portion sizes were estimated with the help of the infants’ cups and plates, as well as a visual aid that the enumerators used in the field. The survey was programmed to guide the enumerator through all four passes of the 24 hour recall survey, and the confirmation step was populated with all foods the respondent had reported.
Results
A total of 85 unique foods were reported, with 0.03% of foods and recipes reported not in the pre-programmed list. An average of 7.4 foods was selected per respondent. Of the total foods selected, 21% were maize porridge and 16% were tea.
Conclusions
Using electronic data collection tools to conduct the multi-pass 24 hour dietary recall is an adequate and effective method, particularly in a region of low dietary diversity.
