The ability of recent immigrant and refugee children to accurately recall school cafeteria foods was investigated as part of a nutritional assessment project. Chinese, Hispanic, Filipino, and Cambodian children, aged 8-11 years, were studied in San Francisco. Food obtained from the school (breakfast and lunch) was weighed for 102 children. The following day, bicultural and bilingual dietitians conducted a dietary recall interview of these two school meals with each child in the child's native language. There was no significant difference in energy intake between the recalled and consumed food intake of Chinese and Hispanic children (p<0.01); however, there were differences between ethnic groups in how well the children recalled foods which affected other nutrients, in particular, vitamin A and vitamin C. For the two meals measured, the slopes of the regression lines for energy illustrated the "flat-slope syndrome" for the Chinese and Hispanic children, but not the others. The energy intake data for the Filipino and Cambodian groups was scattered close to the regression line. The Filipino children significantly overestimated and the Cambodian children significantly underestimated food and therefore their intake of energy and other nutrients. The results suggest that these non-English speaking children are similar to other groups of adults and children in that they are only partially successful in recalling their intake. © 1986 Pergamon Journals Ltd.

Immigrant children 24-hr Recall Dietary Methodology

Short Survey priority journal ethnic or racial aspects immigrant geographic distribution normal human diet refugee psychological aspect methodology interview human school child Adolescent