Dietary Assessment Assignmen
For this assignment, you will conduct dietary assessments on two individuals who fall into two of the following categories: pregnancy, lactation, preschool (~2-4 years), school age (~5-10 years), adolescence (~11-17 years), emerging adulthood (~18-25 years), adults (~26-64 years), older adulthood (~65+ years)
The goal of the assignment is to compare and contrast how individuals from two different life cycle stages might differ in their responses to a 24-hour dietary recall.
First, ask permission from the individuals before you conduct the dietary recalls. If you are interviewing a child, please ask for the parent/caregiver’s consent as well. Let them know that their names will not be used, and the only reason for collecting this information is to fulfill your nutrition assignment.
You will be conducting a 24-hour dietary recall for each individual. You will need to ask for each person’s sex, age, height, weight, and activity level. Then, ask each person what they consumed within a 24-hour period the day prior to your interview. Use prompting questions and be sure to have each person include snacks and beverages. Have them describe the food/beverage in as much detail as possible, such as how the food was prepared, where it was consumed, etc. Be sure to obtain the amounts of each food/beverage in as specific quantities as possible.
For each of the two interviews, you will turn in the 24-hour dietary recalls, diet analysis results, AND typed responses to the following questions:
1. Describe your interviewees as best as you can. How do they differ overall, how are they similar?
2. Describe your experiences in interviewing these two individuals. Was it more difficult to gather information from one over the other? Why or why not?
3. Did you feel that the information gathered was accurate? Why or why not?
4. What might you do to improve and gather more accurate nutritional information if you were to repeat this assignment?
5. Would any other method of dietary assessment be more useful? Why or why not?
6. Based on your formal assessment of the dietary recall records, did each interviewee meet his/her specific recommended dietary intake for the 5 food groups of MyPlate, energy, nutrients (specifically: fat, protein, calcium, iron, zinc, and vitamin A) and physical activity levels? Note that you MUST discuss each of these items in your summary regardless of the analysis results. You may use the SuperTracker at ChooseMyPlate.gov: www.choosemyplate.gov/SuperTracker/default.aspx. If you decide to use a different method to evaluate the 24-hour dietary recalls, please provide the name of the tool and the website address, if applicable.
