Diet and Nutrition Survey of Infants and Young Children in Scotland, 2011

Methodological issues

Mis-reporting of food consumption is known to be a problem in all dietary surveys, although it is generally considered to be less of an issue for younger children than adults. It is not known to what extent it is a problem for infants and young children aged 4 to 18 months. Biased estimates of intake can result from under- or over-reporting of actual intake or intake being modified during the recording period. In this age group there is a particular risk of over-reporting due to an underestimation of food wastage. There is also day-to-day variation in diet, making it difficult to capture habitual diet over the short assessment period of four days. The potential for some mis-reporting needs to be borne in mind when interpreting findings from this survey. Evidence suggests that some foods and nutrients may be under- or over- reported to a greater extent than others, but there is no information available on the extent to which different foods and nutrients are misreported in the survey.