Resumo

CRUZ, Ana Teresa Rodrigues; SOUZA, José Maria Pacheco de  e  PHILIPPI, Sonia Tucunduva. Measuring agreement in "Direct Food Weighing Methods" in child care centers in São Paulo - Brazil. Rev. bras. epidemiol. [online]. 2003, vol.6, n.3, pp. 220-226. ISSN 1415-790X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1415-790X2003000300005.

In the first years of life, children must have a balanced diet in order to ensure their healthy growth and physical development. Therefore, it is important to have quick and simple methods to evaluate food consumption. OBJECTIVES: to evaluate the agreement of the information obtained by the "individual direct food weighing method" and by the "total direct food weighing method". METHODS: The methods were the "individual direct food weighing method" and "total direct food weighing method" used in every meal served to children in a child day care center so as to collect food intake information. Each food portion served to the children, as well as leftovers, was quantified in grams. The agreement coefficient was used in accordance with LIN's model and BLAND & ALTMAN's model for the graphic representation of comparison of both direct food-weighing methods. RESULTS: The agreement observed for the comparison of the Direct Weighing Methods was r = 0.676. CONCLUSION: The comparison between the "individual direct weighing method" and the "total direct weighing method" in the day care center presented low agreement. Using the "total direct weighing method" to evaluate children's food consumption in day care centers is not therefore recommended.

Palavras-chave : Food intake; Child day care centers; Infant nutrition.