Validation of the Eating Assessment Tool to assess diet quality in patients attending a multidisciplinary program for the management of Osteoarthritis.
Giulia Jara1 1Nsw Health – Osteoarthritis Chronic Care Program, Wollongong, NSW, Australia2University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
Abstract
Aim: The Eating Assessment Tool (EAT) was developed to assess the diet quality and habitual intake of patients participating in the Osteoarthritis Chronic Care Program (OACCP) in the Illawarra-Shoalhaven who are awaiting an elective hip or knee replacement. This cross-sectional study aimed to validate the accuracy of the tool in assessing diet quality of these participants.
Methods: Participants completed the EAT and reported their usual dietary intake through a four-day food record, expressed as Australian Dietary Guidelines serves for analysis. Level of agreement between food records and the tool’s questions was conducted using Cohen’s Kappa coefficient. A ranking system was tested in its ability to reflect overall dietary quality.
Results: Thirty-five participants (mean age 68.77 years; 57% female) enrolled in the OACCP were recruited. Preliminary validation of the tool showed eight of fourteen questions had at least moderate agreement (Cohen’s Kappa >0.4, p<0.05) between each question and the food record data. Evaluation of the ranking system showed significant differences between ranks (p<0.05) for eleven of fourteen questions.
Conclusions: There was not enough agreement between the EAT and the food records for vegetable serves convenience meals, fried potato, removal of fat off meat, sweet/baked goods and sugar sweetened beverages to consider the tool an accurate reflection of a patient’s dietary intake and quality. Updating the four-day food record to include more details, for example on food measurements and specific brands of foods followed by a subsequent validation study to assess if these amendments result in greater agreement is needed.
Biography
Giulia Jara is the primary dietitian in the Osteoarthritis Chronic Care Program in the lllawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District. Giulia graduated from the University of Wollongong in 2018 with a Masters in Nutrition and Dietetics and has since gained both inpatient, outpatient and community experience as a clinical dietitian across various hospitals in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven. Giulia has a passion for the dietary management of chronic disease and health behaviour change. Giulia values the importance of the multidisciplinary approach to practice in the management of chronic disease such as Osteoarthritis.