A new, Internet-based Food Recall Checklist (FoRC) was developed to assess students diet; a checklist of 121 foods consumed on the previous day which was completed on multiple days. FoRC was validated against a non-weighted diet record in two studies (n=94). Novel feedback messages for students were created and software was developed to link these messages to results from individual dietary assessment in FoRC. An intervention trial was planned to measure students’ diet and to deliver tailored nutrition messages via the Internet, to assess whether tailored dietary feedback could help to promote healthy diet change. General dietary intake of the sample was analysed using one-day diet records from 459 undergraduate students. The dietary intake of the sample of students was found to be healthier than participants aged 19-24 years in the UK-wide National Diet and Nutrition Survey. However, there was evidence of poor dietary habits; Non-Milk Extrinsic Sugars (NMES) intake exceeded the maximum daily guideline intake and fruit and vegetable and Non-Starch Polysaccharide intakes did not meet recommendations. There was also evidence of excessive consumption of unhealthy foods, such as alcohol, crisps and confectionary. Change in dietary intake was assessed in an <i>intervention </i>group and <i>control </i>group. The <i>intervention </i>group received feedback after baseline, three and six month completion of four days of FoRC. The retention rate was very low, but in participants who completed the protocol NMES intake significantly decreased in the <i>intervention </i>group at six months compared to the <i>control </i>group (p=0.017). It was concluded that monitoring diet in students may still be an important public health objective; students may be relatively healthy, but may still benefit from nutrition surveillance and advice.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:499318 |
Date | January 2008 |
Creators | Comrie, Fiona S. |
Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
Source Sets | Ethos UK |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=25224 |
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