A Systematic Review Examining Contributors to Misestimation of Food and Beverage Intake Based on Short-Term Self-Report Dietary Assessment Instruments Administered to Adults

Error in self-reported food and beverage intake affects the accuracy of dietary intake data. Systematically synthesizing available data on contributors to error within and between food groups has not been conducted but may help inform error mitigation strategies. In this review we aimed to systematically identify, quantify, and compare contributors to error in estimated intake of foods and beverages, based on short-term self-report dietary assessment instruments, such as 24-h dietary recalls and dietary records. Seven research databases were searched for studies including self-reported dietary assessment and a comparator measure of observed intake (e.g., direct observation or controlled feeding studies) in healthy adults up until December 2021. Two reviewers independently screened and extracted data from included studies, recording quantitative data on omissions, intrusions, misclassifications, and/or portion misestimations. Risk of bias was assessed using the QualSyst tool. A narrative synthesis focused on patterns of error within and between food groups. Of 2328 articles identified, 29 met inclusion criteria and were included, corresponding to 2964 participants across 15 countries. Most frequently reported contributors to error were omissions and portion size misestimations of food/beverage items. Although few consistent patterns were seen in omission of consumed items, beverages were omitted less frequently (0-32% of the time), whereas vegetables (2-85%) and condiments (1-80%) were omitted more frequently than other items. Both under- and overestimation of portion size was seen for most single food/beverage items within study samples and most food groups. Studies considered and reported error in different ways, impeding the interpretation of how error contributors interact to impact overall misestimation. We recommend that future studies report 1) all error contributors for each food/beverage item evaluated (i.e., omission, intrusion, misclassification, and portion misestimation), and 2) measures of variation of the error. The protocol of this review was registered in PROSPERO as CRD42020202752 (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/).