Table 2 Methodological considerations of included studiesa which applied ESM for qualitative dietary assessment
From: Experience Sampling as a dietary assessment method: a scoping review towards implementation
Author | ESM Sampling scheme | ESM questionnaire design | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Signaling techniqueb | ESM duration | Frequency and timing of prompts | Dietary variable assessed | Questions | Respond options | Rationale for questionnaire design | Respond window | |
[22] | SR, EC, EOTDQ | 7 days | EC: self-initiated at each eating event; SR: 2 random prompts on school days (15 h-18 h, 18 h-21 h), 4 random prompt on non-school days (9 h-12 h, 12 h-15 h, 15 h-18 h, 18 h-21 h); EOTDQ: 6 h-23h45 | Food and beverage intake, focus on snacks and sweetened beverages | “Were you eating or drinking anything?” | Yes/no respond option. If answer is yes, multiple choice option to select what they were eating: (1) drink only, (2) snack with or without a drink, and (3) meal with or without a drink | Partially based on information collected from focus groups with adolescents to learn about their eating patterns, with a special focus on snacking (locations, social environment, types of snacks and drinks, etc.), mood scales, and food-related cues such as the sight or smell of food identified in studies on restrained eating | Not specified |
SR | 8 days | SR: 3 times on weekdays, 7 times weekend days (1 per time window) weekdays: 15h30-16 h, 17h30-18 h, 19h30-20 h; weekend days: 7h30-8 h, 9h30-10 h, 11h30-12 h, 13h30-14 h, 15h30-16 h, 17h30-18 h, 19h30-20 h | Fruit and vegetables, fries or chips, sweets and pastries, soda and energy drink consumption | First prompt of the day: ‘Since you woke up this morning, which of the following have you done? (Choose all that apply)’ Every following prompt: ‘In the past 2 HOURS, which of the following have you done? (Choose all that apply)’ | Multiple choice: ‘Eaten Fruits or Vegetables’, ‘Eaten Chips or Fries’, ‘Eaten Pastries or Sweets’, ‘Drank Soda or Energy Drinks (not counting diet)’ and ‘None’ | Not specified | Not specified | |
[34] | R | 4 days | 2 times per day during each of the four established time periods: 9h00-12h00, 12h00-15h00, 15h00-19h00, 19h00-22h00 | Consumption of (1) sweets; (2) salty foods; (3) fruits and vegetables; (4) entrées, (5) breads and grains | Real-time prompts asked participants what they were doing in the moment before they received the prompt and retrospective prompts asked participants to recall what they did in the past 3 h | Multiple choice: ‘eating’, ‘drinking’, ‘being physically active’, or ‘none of the above’ If ‘eating’ was selected, following answer options were: (1) sweets, (2) salty snacks/fried side dishes, (3) fruits and vegetables, (4) entrées (eg, pizza, sandwiches, lasagnas, chicken), (5) breads/grains, and (6) other | Not specified | 35 min (5 min prior to prompt, 30 min after) |
[35] | SR | 30 days | 3 times a day in time windows: 7h00-10h00, 14h00-17h00, 17h00-24h00 | Unhealthy food consumption | Daily consumption of following foods was examined: ‘fast food’, ‘caffeinated drinks’ (including soda and sweet tea), ‘not consuming any fruit’, and ‘not consuming any vegetables’ | Yes/no respond option to indicate (missing) consumption of the proposed foods that day | Not specified | Not specified |
[36] | R | 8 days | Up to 8 times per day between 8h30-20h30 | Snacks and SBB consumption | "Is your child eating any of the following?" (fruit and vegetable consumption), "What is your child eating?" (snack consumption), "What is in the cup or bottle?" (SSB consumption) | No fruit or vegetables: (i) cookies or other sweet foods/desserts; (ii) chips or other salty foods; (iii) French fries, chicken nuggets or other fried foods; (iv) none of the above. Fruits or vegetables: (i)fruit; (ii)vegetables (not including French fries); Snacks: meal or snack; SSB: no SSB: (i) whole milk; (ii)low-fat or skimmed milk, (iii) breast milk/formula, (iv) water, (v) diet soda or other diet drink, (vi) juice, 100% or SSB: (i) juice or other sweetened drink (like iced tea or Kool Aid) | Not specified | 15 min |
[37] | SR | 4 days | Up to 15 times per day (1 every hour) during (self-reported) waking time | Highly processed food intake and palatable food intake | “In the last hour, did you …” for the following: “eat sweet high-fat foods (e.g., cookies) “eat fast foods?” and, “drink non-alcoholic sugary drinks?” “In the last hour, did you eat palatable foods (e.g., food that is most pleasurable to you)?” | Yes/no respond option | The specific food/drink groups were selected based on prior literature indicating reward processes are implicated in intake of these foods and because greater proportional intake of these foods can damage physical health ‘Palatable foods’ was selected based on long-standing literature indicating that unique foods are pleasurable to each individual | Not specified |
[38] | SR | 7 days | 5 times per day, 1 h segments (i.e., 9h30–10h30, 12h30–13h30, 15h30–16h30, 18h30–19h30, 21h30–22h30) | Fruits, vegetables, fast food, chips or fries, pastries or sweets, and whole wheat foods, water and SBB | “Did you eat within the past 2 h?” If so, a follow-up question asked participants to indicate the types of foods consumed within the past 2 h. “Had you anything to drink within the past 2 h?” | Yes/no respond option. If answer is yes, type of food needed to be indicated: ‘fruits,’ ‘vegetables,’ ‘fast food,’ ‘chips or fries,’ ‘pastries or sweets,’, and ‘whole wheat foods’, ‘water,’ ‘soda or sweet tea,’ ‘diet soda,’ ‘energy drink,’ ‘sports drink,’ ‘coffee,’ ‘milk,’ ‘fruit juice,’ and ‘alcohol.’ | Not specified | 15 min, reminder every 5 min |
[39] | SR | 14 days | 3h00-9h00; 9h00-15h00; 15h00-21h00; 21h00-3h00 (study population: night nurses) | Empty calorie food/beverage consumption | “Since the last signal, have you consumed or used any of the following items? (Please check all that apply).” | Multiple choice respond option of 21 food/beverage items which were grouped into the following categories: fried/fast food, sweet snack foods (ie, candy), salty snacks (eg, chips), and sugar-sweetened beverages | Food items in the checklist based on the top sources of empty calorie foods/beverages reported in the 2003–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the 1993–1996 Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan (NAHSIT), and the 2005–2008 NAHSIT. Based on the food/beverage items listed in the food frequency questionnaire employed in the NAHSIT | 1 h, reminder every 15 min |
[40] | F | 7 days | 3 times per day following customized schedules coinciding with their regular meal-times (median time for breakfast: 0915 h; lunch: 1245 h; dinner: 1845 h) | Meal consumption | At each prompt, participants were asked: (i) whether they had eaten in the past 15 min (yes/no), (ii) whether they had used their phone during the meal (yes/no), and (iii) what phone functions they had used (free response question). As part of a larger study, they also addressed questions about their food consumption patterns | Yes/no respond option | Not specified | 30 min |
[41] | SR | 7 days | Within 2-h time window around five anchor times: 9:00am, 11:00am, 2:00 pm, 5:00 pm, and 8:00 pm; and morning survey | Meal consumption | Report if a meal or snack was eaten since the last survey and note the approximate times of each meal | Yes/no respond option | Not specified | 60 min with reminder after 30 min |
[42] | F, EC | 7 days | 4 times per day: 9h00, 13h00, 17h00, 21h00 | Consumption of high-fat foods | “Have you eaten any food since the previous prompt?” | Yes/no respond option. If the subject replied “yes”, a list of high-fat foods was presented to select all the food items that applied | Not specified | Not specified |
[43] | SR | 7 days | 5 times per day (07h00–10h00, 10h00–13h00, 13h00–16h00, 16h00–19h00, 19h00–22h00) | Foods and beverages consumed during the day (i.e., at breakfast, morning and afternoon snack, lunch, and dinner) from a list | “Select if the following 35 food items were eaten or not” | Multiple choice respond option: ‘breakfast cereals’, ‘biscuits’, ‘white bread’, ‘wholemeal bread’, ‘pasta’, ‘rice’, ‘vegetables’, ‘legumes’, ‘soup’, ‘fruit’, ‘nuts’, ‘red meat’, ‘white meat’, ‘processed meat’, ‘offal, fish’, ‘canned fish’, ‘shellfish’, ‘curd cheese’, ‘ripened cheese’, ‘eggs, milk’, ‘yoghurt’, ‘pizza’, ‘salty snacks’, ‘fries’, ‘sweets and refined sugar’, ‘olive oil’, ‘vegetable oil’, ‘butter and margarine’, ‘dipping sauces’, ‘energy drinks’, ‘fruit juice’, ‘coffee’, ‘tea’, ‘wine’, ‘beer’, ‘spirits’ | Not specified | Not specified |