Compl-eat

Compl-eat is a web-based platform that connects details of dietary intake (what type of food has been eaten and in which amount) to nutrient database and can be used for:

• Self-administered web-based 24-hour dietary recalls
• Data entry of food records or interview-based recalls
• Extensive nutrition calculations

Web-based self-administered 24-hour dietary recall

The Compl-eat 24-hour dietary recall (24hDR) module guides the participants to report all foods and drinks consumed during the previous day. Compl-eat uses a so-called, multiple-pass approach to assess dietary intake of the participants. It includes three steps: a 'quick list', a 'detailed description of items consumed' and a 'check'.

1. First the participants fill in a quick list.
2. Second, participants fill in the details (type and amount) of the foods consumed.
3. At the end of the recall, Compl-eat reminds the participants to check often forgotten foods such as candy, gum, snacks, fruit and drinks.

Implementing the web-based 24-hour dietary recall

The web-based 24hDR can be distributed to the participants by the researcher via an email with login instructions. Participants will complete the 24hDR via a web-based interface.

Additional features

Compl-eat contains a recipe module where participants can report consumption of a certain dish by choosing or adapting a standard, or listing all the ingredients of their own recipe and indicating the portion of the total dish they consumed.

Compl-eat contains an option where participants can add notes for clarifications when needed.

It is advised to have trained dietitians check all reported data for completeness and unusual portion sizes, and to process all notes made by the participants. Our dietitians use a standardized approaches and recipes to correct errors and code notes.

See a full description of Compl-eat including the 24hDRmodule and the validation of the self-administered method against interview based method in this article.

Data entry of food records or interviewer administrated 24-hour dietary recalls

Compl-eat can also be used for direct entry of food records or interviewer-administrated 24hDR. It is advised to have trained dietitians check and code the records or recalls before data entry. The dietitians of our department can provide a training in checking and coding records.

Nutrient computation module

Compl-eat also contains an extensive nutrient computation module. This module is used to calculated intakes of food groups, foods, energy and nutrients by multiplying reported intakes, from the 24hDRs or food records, with nutrient values from the most recent Dutch Food Composition table (NEVO) or any other food composition table, as desired.

The computation module can also be used to, for example, calculate recipes and/or diets for controlled feeding trials or experimental meals. Moreover, data reported via other digital tools can also be imported directly in Compl-eat for extensive nutrition calculations.

Processing of the data

After the nutrition calculations different kind of outputs are available and can be downloaded, such as nutrient intake per day and nutrient intake per item per day. Data can be exported as .CSV file that is compatible with any statistical software program. Processing the data can be done by the researchers themselves.

An additional data check can be performed by our dietitians. In this check the reported data will be checked for possible over-and underreporting and will be compared to a reference population.