Table 3 Methodological considerations of included studiesa which applied ESM for semi-quantitative 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 | |
[44] | SR | 7 days | Within 5 time windows per day (8h00, 12h00, 15h30, 18h30 and 21h30 with a range of 30 min each), tailored to the schedule of their schools | Snacks and sugar sweetened beverages (SBB) consumption | “In the last three and a half hours, what type of snack(s) did you eat? And how many?”; “In the last three and a half hours, have you eaten fruit or vegetables?” | Multiple-choice bullets as response categories for daily meal consumption. Multiple-choice open field combined with VAS sliders to indicate type and frequency of fruits and vegetables, snacks, and sodas consumed. Sliders ranged from 0–100 with open fields enabling participants to fill in amounts ˃100. Binary response categories were used for binary questions | Questions were adapted from a validated questionnaire | 60 min, reminder after 30 min |
SR | 7 days | 5 times per day in time windows: 7h00-10h00, 10h00-13h00, 13h00-16h00, 16 h-19h00, 19 h-22 h | Snack and sweetened beverage consumption | “Did you consume any of the following foods or beverages since the last signal: i) French fries or other fried side dish, ii) salty snacks such as potato chips, iii) cookies or sweetened baked good (e.g., cake, donut, cookie), iv) chocolate or candy, v) ice-cream or frozen dessert, and vi) sweetened beverage (e.g., pop, juice)? | Yes/no respond option, each positive response for items i-v was summed and dichotomized as none (0) or one, or more than one (> = 1) snack food item | This checklist was adapted from the Dietary Screener Questionnaire (DSQ) (National Health Interview Survey, 2014) | Not specified | |
[49] | F | 7 days | 2 times per day at 14h00 and at 22h00 | Salty snack consumption | 14 h prompt: question one: salty snack food intake between the previous night's prompt and sleep (i.e., from 10:00 p.m. until falling asleep), question two: salty snack food intake between waking up and the current time (i.e., snacks eaten throughout the day until 2:00 p.m.). 22 h prompt: salty snack food intake between the previous prompt and the current time (i.e., 2:00 pm and 10:00 pm) | Multiple choice options which specified different sizes of snack servings (i.e., 0, 1, 2–3, or 4 or more servings), each of which was presented using common equivalents of the specified serving size, e.g., “one snack size bag of Doritos or Tortilla chips.” | Not specified | Answering possible till next prompt, reminder after 90 min |
[50] | F | 7 days | 5 times a day: 10h00, 13h00, 16h00, 19h00, 22h00 | Snack consumption | “How many snacks did you consume since the last signal” | Number of consumed snacks | Not specified | 60 min, every 10 min reminder |
[55] | R | 7 days | 4 per day at 21 h | Mediterranean diet food consumption | Intake of specified foods during last 24 or 48 h | 1. extra virgin olive oil (yes/no), 2. vegetables (n° servings), 3. fruit (n° servings), 4. whole-grain food, 5. sugary drinks (including juices) (n° servings), 6. legumes (n° servings), 7. nuts (n° servings), 8. sweets (yes/no), 9. fish and sea food (n° servings), 10. red meat (n° servings), 11. processed meat (n° servings) | Not specified | 12 min |
[54] | F | 20 days | Once per day: end of the day | Palatable food consumption | Question on number of palatable foods of each food category (sweet, starchy, fast, fatty) consumed during the day | Open field | Examples of foods in each category were provided from the highest factor loadings on each construct from the Food Craving Inventory questionnaire | Not specified |
[56] | F | 7 days | 4 times per day: 8h00, 12h00, 16h00, 20h00 | Dietary intake | Question on foods consumed since last assessment | If participants endorsed food consumption since the last assessment, they were asked to indicate the largest quantity of food consumed during this period (snack, small meal, medium meal, or large meal) | Not specified | 30 min |