EPIC Norfolk 7-day Diet Diaries

7dDD

Dietary assessment

Estimated food diary

9th February 2022

Fumiaki Imamura, University of Cambridge MRC Epidemiology Unit

The original 7dDD is an A5 booklet with four pages for each day to record the foods and drinks consumed over seven meal occasions (before breakfast, breakfast, between breakfast and lunch, lunch, between lunch and dinner, dinner and after dinner), based on the diary used in the National Survey of Health and Development (Ref. Prynne et al., Br J Nutr, 2007). For each day, there is a separate area for recipe notation and a checklist of commonly consumed but often forgotten foods. The last four pages in the diary are in the style of a general questionnaire where details regarding the types of milk, bread and spread are recorded to aid data entry in case participants cannot provide enough details in their 7dDD. Participants are asked to write down the type and amount of foods consumed at the time of consumption. Portions may be estimated using household measures (such as teaspoons and mugs) or one of the seventeen colour-print photos of commonly consumed foods/dishes or by recording weights from packaging. The participants are asked to return the diaries to the study centre by post. An electronic data entry, using a smartphone or a tablet, is feasible but has not been implemented as of March 2022.