24-Hour Dietary Recall in the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program: Perspective of the Program Coordinator

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine how the 24-hour dietary recall (24HDR) is administered and how the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) peer educators and other staff are trained on the data collection and entry process, from the EFNEP coordinators’ perspectives. This cross-sectional, quantitative study utilized an online survey to collect information from EFNEP coordinators representing 61 of 76 EFNEP programs. While 56% of the programs collected the 24HDR data starting with the first thing eaten the previous day, 49% of them started collecting data at the time of class, going backwards. Most programs, i.e., 72%, reported using a multiple-pass method; however, only one-third of them reported using the standard five-pass method. Almost all programs, i.e., 97%, reported one peer educator collecting data from a group of 2–12 clients. All programs reported collecting the 24HDR data in a group setting, with about one-third of the programs also collecting data one-on-one. Most programs, i.e., 57%, reported spending ≤4 h on the initial training of staff in how to collect 24HDR data, and 54% of them reported that the peer educators entered the data themselves. This study found that the methods used to collect answers, train the staff, and enter the 24HDR data varied across EFNEP programs and that there is a need to standardize or revise the collection of 24HDR data.