OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the agreement between two nutrition software applications frequently used to estimate food intake in children from 6 to 30 months of age. METHODS: One hundred children, from 6 to 30 months, were sampled from 407 children, whose mothers answered a 24-hour recall. Interviews took place in the households. Sizes of portions for the 10 most frequently consumed foods were compared based on both software applications. Portion sizes in each software application were compared to the national table of portion sizes. Estimated energy intake and nutrients were also analyzed. The statistical analysis was conducted using the Spearman correlation coefficient and the Bland & Altman method. RESULTS: There were great differences between portion sizes in each software application in relation to the corresponding portion size in the national table for almost all foods selected. Comparing the mean intake between the two software applications, the greatest correlation was between carbohydrates (r=0.81) and the smallest correlation was observed for zinc (r=0.52). The mean energy intake and macronutrient intake by the Virtual Nutri program were higher than values based on the NutWin application. On the other hand, values of micronutrient intake were higher on the NutWin software. The two software applications differed slightly on the intakes of vitamin C and retinol. CONCLUSION: The choice of software application may play an important role when estimating the food intake of children, both in relation to portion sizes and also because of food composition tables.
Food intake; Children's food consumption; Food composition tables
