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Criterion Validity of Veggie Meter® to Estimate Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Non-Hispanic White Preschool Children

2023; Elsevier BV; Volume: 55; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jneb.2023.05.146

1878-2620

Saima Hasnin, Naveta Bhatti, Dipti Dev,

Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet

Background Dietary intake assessment for preschool children (3-5 years old) is resource intensive and subject to caregivers' biases and recall abilities. Skin carotenoid is considered a valid biomarker for approximating children's fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC) over 4-6 weeks. Veggie Meter® (VM®) is a pressure-mediated reflection spectroscopy-based device that allows for non-invasive and rapid assessment of skin carotenoid score (SCS) in children and adults. Although VM® is established as a valid and sensitive tool to measure FVC in adults, the criterion validity of VM® is yet to be established with dietary intake in preschool children. Objectives To establish criterion-related validity of VM®-assessed SCS as a proxy for FVC among non-Hispanic White preschool children. Study, Design, Settings, Participants Cross-sectional data were collected from typically developing 3-5-year old children attending family child care home settings (n=30) in Nebraska. For the current study, only non-Hispanic White children (n=66) were included. Measurable Outcome/Analysis We collected children's height-weight to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI), and children's SCS was collected using VM®. Parents completed a shortened version of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to report children's FVC over the last month in Qualtrics. We conducted Pearson's correlation in SPSS v.29.0 to measure the association between children's SCS with parent-reported FFQ scores. Results Children's SCS was not associated with their weight status, BMI- Z score, age, and biological sex. Parent-reported FFQ score for children's FVC over the last month was significantly associated with VM®- assessed SCS, r= 0.26 (p=0.04). We found a small effect size for the criterion-related validity for VM®- assessed SCS among preschool children. Conclusion Measuring SCS can be an easy and non-invasive alternative to collecting parent-reported FVC data for preschool children. The criterion validity result is comparable to previous studies conducted in adults (r=0.35) and meta-analyses conducted for older children (r=0.20). Future experimental studies are warranted to establish the sensitivity of VM® to capture changes in SCS for preschool children over time. Funding Buffett Early Childhood Institute Graduate Scholars Program; Administration for Children and Families, Child Care Dissertation Grants Dietary intake assessment for preschool children (3-5 years old) is resource intensive and subject to caregivers' biases and recall abilities. Skin carotenoid is considered a valid biomarker for approximating children's fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC) over 4-6 weeks. Veggie Meter® (VM®) is a pressure-mediated reflection spectroscopy-based device that allows for non-invasive and rapid assessment of skin carotenoid score (SCS) in children and adults. Although VM® is established as a valid and sensitive tool to measure FVC in adults, the criterion validity of VM® is yet to be established with dietary intake in preschool children. To establish criterion-related validity of VM®-assessed SCS as a proxy for FVC among non-Hispanic White preschool children. Cross-sectional data were collected from typically developing 3-5-year old children attending family child care home settings (n=30) in Nebraska. For the current study, only non-Hispanic White children (n=66) were included. We collected children's height-weight to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI), and children's SCS was collected using VM®. Parents completed a shortened version of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to report children's FVC over the last month in Qualtrics. We conducted Pearson's correlation in SPSS v.29.0 to measure the association between children's SCS with parent-reported FFQ scores. Children's SCS was not associated with their weight status, BMI- Z score, age, and biological sex. Parent-reported FFQ score for children's FVC over the last month was significantly associated with VM®- assessed SCS, r= 0.26 (p=0.04). We found a small effect size for the criterion-related validity for VM®- assessed SCS among preschool children. Measuring SCS can be an easy and non-invasive alternative to collecting parent-reported FVC data for preschool children. The criterion validity result is comparable to previous studies conducted in adults (r=0.35) and meta-analyses conducted for older children (r=0.20). Future experimental studies are warranted to establish the sensitivity of VM® to capture changes in SCS for preschool children over time.