Reliability estimates for assessing meal timing derived from longitudinal repeated 24-hour dietary recalls.
- Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; Department Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT, United States; Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT, United States.
- Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT, United States.
- International Agency for Research on Cancer, WHO, Lyon, France.
- Cancer Prevention Program, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, United States.
- Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT, United States.
- Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT, United States.
- Department of Molecular Epidemiology, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke (DIfE), Nuthetal, Germany; NutriAct - Competence Cluster Nutrition Research Berlin-Potsdam, Nuthetal, Germany; Institute of Nutritional Science, University of Potsdam, Nuthetal, Germany.
- Department of Molecular Epidemiology, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke (DIfE), Nuthetal, Germany; NutriAct - Competence Cluster Nutrition Research Berlin-Potsdam, Nuthetal, Germany.
- Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; Department of Health and Kinesiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States.
- Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT, United States.
- Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, United States.
- Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Science, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, United States.
- Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT, United States. Electronic address: authormary.playdon@hci.utah.edu.
BACKGROUND: Regulating meal timing may have efficacy for improving metabolic health for preventing or managing chronic disease. However, the reliability of measuring meal timing with commonly used dietary assessment tools needs characterization prior to investigating meal timing and health outcomes in epidemiologic studies.
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the reliability of estimating meal timing parameters, including overnight fasting duration, the midpoint of overnight fasting time, the number of daily eating episodes, the period with the largest percentage of daily caloric intake, and the late last eating episode (>09:00 pm) from repeated 24-h dietary recalls (24HRs).
METHODS: Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), Light's Kappa estimates, and 95% CIs were calculated from repeated 24HR administered in 3 epidemiologic studies: United States-based Interactive Diet and Activity Tracking in American Association of Retired Persons (IDATA) study (n = 996, 6 24HR collected over 12-mo), German EPIC-Potsdam Validation Study (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition Potsdam Germany cohort) (n = 134, 12 24HR collected over 12-mo) and EPIC-Potsdam BMBF-II Study (Federal Ministry of Education and Research "Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) (n = 725, 4 24HR collected over 36 mo).
RESULTS: Measurement reliability of overnight fasting duration based on a single 24HR was "poor" in all studies [ICC range: 0.27; 95% CI: 0.23, 0.32 - 0.46; 95% CI: 0.43, 0.50]. Reliability was "moderate" with 3 24HR (ICC range: 0.53; 95% CI: 0.47, 0.58 in IDATA, 0.62; 95% CI: 0.52, 0.69 in the EPIC-Potsdam Validation Study, and 0.72; 95% CI: 0.70-0.75 in the EPIC-Potsdam BMBF-II Study). Results were similar for the midpoint of overnight fasting time and the number of eating episodes. Reliability of measuring late eating was "fair" in IDATA (Light's Kappa: 0.30; 95% CI: 0.21, 0.39) and "slight" in the EPIC-Potsdam Validation study and the EPIC-Potsdam BMBF-II study (Light's Kappa: 0.19; 95% CI: 0.15, 0.25 and 0.09; 95% CI: 0.06, 0.12, respectively). Reliability estimates differed by sex, BMI, weekday, and season of 24HR administration in some studies.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that ≥3 24HR over a 1-3-y period are required for reliable estimates of meal timing variables.
- IDATA-40: Reliability of 24-Hour Dietary Recall for Measuring Meal Timing (Mary Playdon - 2020)