Validation of photograph series as a portion size measurement aid in dietary assessment in children

Determining children’s food consumption is challenging and requires dietetic methods that provide adequate specificity for describing, but also for quantifying food intake. To help survey respondents indicate food portion sizes, photograph series can be used, but these must be validated in a nationally representative sample of the population. The aim of the present study was to validate photograph series as a portion size measurement aid during dietary assessment of children in Croatia. This study involved 28 mothers of children aged 3 months to 10 years, who were asked to select one of four photographs in a series that best represented the quantity of food served to them. Of the 21 series tested, 17 were found to be appropriate for assessing food portion sizes. Participants were worst at assessing portion sizes of banana (29.3%), porridge (22.8%), hot dogs (20,3%) and plain yoghurt (19.1%). Further studies are needed to determine why these foods are poorly recognized so that photographs can be modified accordingly and validated.