Self-report-based estimates of energy intake offer an inadequate basis for scientific conclusions

摘要

Dear Sir: It has been 23 y since one of us (DAS) examined data from 9 studies that compared self-reported energy intakes (EIs) with measurements of EI made by use of the doubly labeled water (DLW) method. At that time, we detected substantial biases and inaccuracies in self-reported EIs such that we concluded, "Because the greatest bias was observed in obese subjects, current methods for self-reported energy intake are not recommended for use in obesity research" (1). Despite this, yet another new publication has used self-report data and arrived at the conclusion that "after decades of increases, mean energy intake has decreased significantly since 2003-2004" (2). Although the CDC has led a historic effort to reverse the obesity epidemic, that does not justify their investigators using 40 y of self-reported EI data from the NHANES unless some reason exists to conclude that the accuracy of dietary reporting has substantially improved since the publication of those earlier caveats. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Rather, other reports would suggest that bias in reporting of energy intake may even have increased (3). Hence, the conclusions of Ford and Dietz (2) cannot be supported by the EI data they present.