Skip to main content
NUTRITION 2023 Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Back

Topical Area: Global Nutrition

Global Nutrition (Poster Session)

(P17-004-23) Formative Pre-Test of the GDQS Application in Ethiopia

Sunday, July 23, 2023
12:45 PM – 1:45 PM ET
Location: Poster Board 302

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Megan Deitchler, PhD (she/her/hers)

    Director, Intake - Center for Dietary Assessment
    Intake - Center for Dietary Assessment at FHI Solutions
    Washington, District of Columbia, United States

    • Co-Author(s)

  • YA

    Yonas Taffesse Asrat, MSc

    Associate Director-Monitoring and Evaluation
    Alive & Thrive
    Addis Ababa, Adis Abeba, Ethiopia

  • MM

    Mourad Moursi

    Intake – Center for Dietary Assessment, FHI Solutions

  • MV

    Marieke Vossenaar

    Intake – Center for Dietary Assessment, FHI Solutions

Disclosure(s):
Megan Deitchler, PhD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.


Objectives: The Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) application is an electronic data collection tool developed by Intake to provide a standard, easy-to-use method for collecting low-cost, time-relevant data on diet quality. This formative pre-test aimed to determine the feasibility and ease of use of the GDQS application and a set of ten 3D cubes to estimate quantities consumed at the food group level and to help improve the GDQS application.

Methods: The GDQS application uses an open recall to capture all foods consumed by the respondent during a 24-hour reference period. The application is used in conjunction with a set of ten 3D cubes as visual aids to assist the respondent with estimating the total quantity (volume) consumed at the food group level. The pre-test was conducted in two selected regions of Ethiopia with varied dietary practices. Face-to-face interviews were conducted by Alive & Thrive staff in Ethiopia with 120 pregnant women to collect dietary data using the GDQS application, followed by a feedback questionnaire using CSPro. Enumerators also completed a feedback questionnaire using CSPro and participated in focus group discussions after the end of data collection.

Results: Most women (90%) indicated that it was easy to report foods consumed yesterday. Enumerators rated the GDQS application as easy to use in 86% of the interviews. They identified the automatic provision of food specific probes to guide the interview, the automatic classification of reported foods and ingredients into the corresponding GDQS food groups and the ability to work offline as some of the main advantages of the application. More than three-quarters (78%) of the respondents said it was not difficult to choose the cube that corresponded to the amount of different food groups they reported consuming. Most respondents (80.0%) consumed food from a shared plate. Enumerators learned that illiterate respondents often needed additional guidance and time to understand the information and that smaller cubes were not considered as useful by a few respondents because they were too small.

Conclusions: The results suggest that the GQDS application and set of ten 3D cubes were easy to use and feasible for collecting data on diet quality in low income country setting.

Funding Sources: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation