Evaluation Of The International Standardized 24-Hour Dietary Methodology (GloboDiet) For Potential Applications In African Research And Surveillance Settings

LANDAIS E. ² , NICOLAS G. ¹ , SLIMANI N. ¹ , *ON BEHALF OF THE CONSULTED EXPERTS GROUP N. ^NS

Purpose: The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO) is the owner of an international standardized 24-hour dietary recall methodology (GloboDiet) aiming to cover the lack of standardized dietary tools for nutritional monitoring and surveillance in the global context of rapid increasing of obesity and related comorbidities including cancers. The objective of this project was to evaluate the GloboDiet methodology and its potentials for use in the specific African context.
 
Methods: A panel of 29 African and international experts in food consumption field participated in six e-workshop sessions upon invitation of the Dietary Exposure Assessment Group (DEX) of IARC/WHO, to comment on the GloboDiet methodology and its features. Each expert completed afterwards an online questionnaire.
 
Results: The experts expressed their overall satisfaction on the suitability of the GloboDiet as potential tool for collection of dietary consumption data in Africa for surveillance and research purposes. The different sections of the interview methodology were acknowledged as adapted or/adaptable to the African context. Notwithstanding, the experts made specific requirements for additional figures regarding local African foods and recipes description. The experts also unanimously expressed the need to address individual quantification in the context of shared-dish eating habits, of major relevance throughout Africa.
 
Conclusions: The consultation of the experts provided constructive comments on the ability of the GloboDiet methodology to cover the African specific needs for food consumption data collection. There is, however, a need to adapt some of the sections to local specificity and particularly study how to address individual consumption from a shared plate.
 
 
Funding source: The work was undertaken during the tenure of a postdoctoral fellowship from the IARC, partially supported by the European Commission FP7 Marie Curie Actions–People–Cofounding of Regional, National and International Programmes (COFUND)