Rick Weiss - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Rick Weiss

Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, 2003

To overcome the limitations of current dietary assessment methodology, scientists at the USDA, AR... more To overcome the limitations of current dietary assessment methodology, scientists at the USDA, ARS, Western Human Nutrition Research Center (WHNRC) developed a computerized food-scale system named NESSy, Nutrition Evaluation Scale System (US Patent #5,233,520). WHNRC and Princeton Multimedia Technologies (PMT), through the USDA Technology Transfer program, have a cooperative research and development agreement to commercialize products based upon NESSy. The first product, ProNESSy, allows dietetic professionals the capability to track weighed food intakes for research subjects participating in clinical, metabolic, and/or free-living research studies. ProNESSy is a software module that works with ProNutra, PMT's dietary analysis system that supports research dietitians. While ProNutra facilitates diet design, ProNESSy facilitates accurate dietary kitchen food processing as well as accurate and timely reporting of the food/nutrient intake from such studies. Dietitians use ProNutra to plan, manage, and analyze food and nutrient intake while dietary kitchen staff use ProNESSy to accurately weigh and track foods prepared for research studies. Together, the two software modules provide health care researchers the unique ability to design precise nutrient-intake studies and to efficiently measure, manage, and monitor the preparation and consumption of the provided foods and nutrients. ProNESSy runs on a PC with a touch-sensitive screen connected to an electronic scale. ProNESSy converts study diets into detailed electronic step-by-step instructions to direct the diet preparation. The ''Weigh-In'' mode, used during diet assembly, ensures that each subject is served the correct weight of specified foods. The ''Weigh-Out'' mode is used to determine actual intake by weighing any uneaten food(s). Extensive error detection and prevention techniques are used to prevent errors.

BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health, 2020

IntroductionAdherence to cardioprotective dietary patterns can reduce risk for developing cardiom... more IntroductionAdherence to cardioprotective dietary patterns can reduce risk for developing cardiometabolic disease. Rates of diet assessment and counselling by physicians are low. Use of a diet screener that rapidly identifies individuals at higher risk due to suboptimal dietary choices could increase diet assessment and brief counselling in clinical care.MethodsWe evaluated the relative validity and reliability of a 9-item diet risk score (DRS) based on the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2015, a comprehensive measure of diet quality calculated from a 160-item, validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). We hypothesised that DRS (0 (low risk) to 27 (high risk)) would inversely correlate with HEI-2015 score. Adults aged 35 to 75 years were recruited from a national research volunteer registry (ResearchMatch.org) and completed the DRS and FFQ in random order on one occasion. To measure reliability, participants repeated the DRS within 3 months.ResultsIn total, 126 adults (87% female) com...

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) can be managed through diet and lifestyle changes. The ... more BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) can be managed through diet and lifestyle changes. The American Diabetes Association acknowledges that knowing what and when to eat is the most challenging aspect of diabetes management. Although current recommendations for self-monitoring of diet and glucose levels aim to improve glycemic stability among people with T2D, tracking all intake is burdensome and unsustainable. Thus, dietary self-monitoring approaches that are equally effective but are less burdensome should be explored. OBJECTIVE This study aims to examine the feasibility of an abbreviated dietary self-monitoring approach in patients with T2D, in which only carbohydrate-containing foods are recorded in a diet tracker. METHODS We used a mixed methods approach to quantitatively and qualitatively assess general and diet-related diabetes knowledge and the acceptability of reporting only carbohydrate-containing foods in 30 men and women with T2D. RESULTS The mean Diabetes Knowledge ...

British Journal of Nutrition, 2005

Nutrigenomics is the study of how constituents of the diet interact with genes, and their product... more Nutrigenomics is the study of how constituents of the diet interact with genes, and their products, to alter phenotype and, conversely, how genes and their products metabolise these constituents into nutrients, antinutrients, and bioactive compounds. Results from molecular and genetic epidemiological studies indicate that dietary unbalance can alter gene–nutrient interactions in ways that increase the risk of developing chronic disease. The interplay of human genetic variation and environmental factors will make identifying causative genes and nutrients a formidable, but not intractable, challenge. We provide specific recommendations for how to best meet this challenge and discuss the need for new methodologies and the use of comprehensive analyses of nutrient–genotype interactions involving large and diverse populations. The objective of the present paper is to stimulate discourse and collaboration among nutrigenomic researchers and stakeholders, a process that will lead to an incr...

Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2010

JMIR mHealth and uHealth

Background: New methods for assessing diet in research are being developed to address the limitat... more Background: New methods for assessing diet in research are being developed to address the limitations of traditional dietary assessment methods. Mobile device-assisted ecological momentary diet assessment (mEMDA) is a new dietary assessment method that has not yet been optimized and has the potential to minimize recall biases and participant burden while maximizing ecological validity. There have been limited efforts to characterize the use of mEMDA in behavioral research settings. Objective: The aims of this study were to summarize mEMDA protocols used in research to date, to characterize key aspects of these assessment approaches, and to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of mEMDA compared with the traditional dietary assessment methods as well as implications for future mEMDA research. Methods: Studies that used mobile devices and described mEMDA protocols to assess dietary intake were included. Data were extracted according to Preferred Reporting of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and Cochrane guidelines and then synthesized narratively. Results: The review included 20 studies with unique mEMDA protocols. Of these, 50% (10/20) used participant-initiated reports of intake at eating events (event-contingent mEMDA), and 50% (10/20) used researcher-initiated prompts requesting that participants report recent dietary intake (signal-contingent mEMDA). A majority of the study protocols (60%, 12/20) enabled participants to use mobile phones to report dietary data. Event-contingent mEMDA protocols most commonly assessed diet in real time, used dietary records for data collection (60%, 6/10), and provided estimates of energy and nutrient intake (60%, 6/10). All signal-contingent mEMDA protocols used a near real-time recall approach with unannounced (ie, random) abbreviated diet surveys. Most signal-contingent protocols (70%, 7/10) assessed the frequency with which (targeted) foods or food groups were consumed. Relatively few (30%, 6/20) studies compared mEMDA with the traditional dietary assessment methods.

Nutrients

Background: This pilot study collected preliminary data for the modification of the VioScreen Foo... more Background: This pilot study collected preliminary data for the modification of the VioScreen Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), an adult-validated, self-administered, web-based dietary assessment tool for use in older children. Methods: A convenience sample of 55 children, aged 6–14 years, completed the VioScreen FFQ and 3-day diet record (reference standard). Caregivers completed a short sociodemographic questionnaire. Reported dietary intakes from the VioScreen FFQ and 3-day diet record were calculated using standard nutrient databases, and descriptive statistics were used to examine differences in food/beverage items and portion sizes between the two methods. Informal focus groups obtained user feedback and identified components of the VioScreen FFQ that required modifications. Results: The highest de-attenuated Pearson correlation coefficients between the VioScreen FFQ and 3-day diet record were observed for iron (r = 0.69), saturated fat (r = 0.59), and vegetables (r = 0.56),...

American journal of preventive medicine, 2018

Accurate assessment of dietary intake and physical activity is a vital component for quality rese... more Accurate assessment of dietary intake and physical activity is a vital component for quality research in public health, nutrition, and exercise science. However, accurate and consistent methodology for the assessment of these components remains a major challenge. Classic methods use self-report to capture dietary intake and physical activity in healthy adult populations. However, these tools, such as questionnaires or food and activity records and recalls, have been shown to underestimate energy intake and expenditure as compared with direct measures like doubly labeled water. This paper summarizes recent technological advancements, such as remote sensing devices, digital photography, and multisensor devices, which have the potential to improve the assessment of dietary intake and physical activity in free-living adults. This review will provide researchers with emerging evidence in support of these technologies, as well as a quick reference for selecting the "right-sized"...

Computer-administered food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) can address limitations inherent in pa... more Computer-administered food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) can address limitations inherent in paper questionnaires by allowing very complex skip patterns, portion size estimation based on food pictures, and real-time error checking. We evaluated a web-based FFQ, the Graphical Food Frequency System (GraFFS). Participants completed the GraFFS, six telephone-administered 24-hour dietary recalls over the next 12 weeks, followed by a second GraFFS. Participants were 40 men and 34 women, aged 18 to 69 years, living in the Columbus, OH, area. Intakes of energy, macronutrients, and 17 micronutrients/food components were estimated from the GraFFS and the mean of all recalls. Bias (second GraFFS minus recalls) was -9%, -5%, +4%, and -4% for energy and percentages of energy from fat, carbohydrate, and protein, respectively. De-attenuated, energy-adjusted correlations (intermethod reliability) between the recalls and the second GraFFS for fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol were 0.82, 0.79, 0.67, and 0.90, respectively; for micronutrients/food components the median was 0.61 and ranged from 0.40 for zinc to 0.92 for beta carotene. The correlations between the two administrations of the GraFFS (test-retest reliability) for fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol were 0.60, 0.63, 0.73, and 0.87, respectively; among micronutrients/food components the median was 0.67 and ranged from 0.49 for vitamin B-12 to 0.82 for fiber. The measurement characteristics of the GraFFS were at least as good as those reported for most paper FFQs, and its high intermethod reliability suggests that further development of computer-administered FFQs is warranted.

Computer-administered food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) can address limitations inherent in pa... more Computer-administered food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) can address limitations inherent in paper questionnaires by allowing very complex skip patterns, portion size estimation based on food pictures, and real-time error checking. We evaluated a web-based FFQ, the Graphical Food Frequency System (GraFFS). Participants completed the GraFFS, six telephone-administered 24-hour dietary recalls over the next 12 weeks, followed by a second GraFFS. Participants were 40 men and 34 women, aged 18 to 69 years, living in the Columbus, OH, area. Intakes of energy, macronutrients, and 17 micronutrients/food components were estimated from the GraFFS and the mean of all recalls. Bias (second GraFFS minus recalls) was -9%, -5%, +4%, and -4% for energy and percentages of energy from fat, carbohydrate, and protein, respectively. De-attenuated, energy-adjusted correlations (intermethod reliability) between the recalls and the second GraFFS for fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol were 0.82, 0.79, 0.67, and 0.90, respectively; for micronutrients/food components the median was 0.61 and ranged from 0.40 for zinc to 0.92 for beta carotene. The correlations between the two administrations of the GraFFS (test-retest reliability) for fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol were 0.60, 0.63, 0.73, and 0.87, respectively; among micronutrients/food components the median was 0.67 and ranged from 0.49 for vitamin B-12 to 0.82 for fiber. The measurement characteristics of the GraFFS were at least as good as those reported for most paper FFQs, and its high intermethod reliability suggests that further development of computer-administered FFQs is warranted.

Journal of Food Composition and Analysis - J FOOD COMPOS ANAL

ABSTRACT Estimating food weight from data on food volume requires that density of the food be kno... more ABSTRACT Estimating food weight from data on food volume requires that density of the food be known. When both volume and weight are published on food tables the density can be calculated, however for many foods volume data are not available on the food table. Using a camera image of food to document dietary intake by automatically matching the food to a database entry requires that food volume be calculated and food weight estimated. This paper discusses some considerations when using USDA food tables to calculate composition of foods documented by camera image, as well as thoughts on measuring food volume and the potential for developing default values for density using available food volume data.

Journal of Food Composition and Analysis - J FOOD COMPOS ANAL

ABSTRACT Estimating food weight from data on food volume requires that density of the food be kno... more ABSTRACT Estimating food weight from data on food volume requires that density of the food be known. When both volume and weight are published on food tables the density can be calculated, however for many foods volume data are not available on the food table. Using a camera image of food to document dietary intake by automatically matching the food to a database entry requires that food volume be calculated and food weight estimated. This paper discusses some considerations when using USDA food tables to calculate composition of foods documented by camera image, as well as thoughts on measuring food volume and the potential for developing default values for density using available food volume data.

Journal of Nutrition, 2010

Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2010

Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, 2003

To overcome the limitations of current dietary assessment methodology, scientists at the USDA, AR... more To overcome the limitations of current dietary assessment methodology, scientists at the USDA, ARS, Western Human Nutrition Research Center (WHNRC) developed a computerized food-scale system named NESSy, Nutrition Evaluation Scale System (US Patent #5,233,520). WHNRC and Princeton Multimedia Technologies (PMT), through the USDA Technology Transfer program, have a cooperative research and development agreement to commercialize products based upon NESSy. The first product, ProNESSy, allows dietetic professionals the capability to track weighed food intakes for research subjects participating in clinical, metabolic, and/or free-living research studies. ProNESSy is a software module that works with ProNutra, PMT's dietary analysis system that supports research dietitians. While ProNutra facilitates diet design, ProNESSy facilitates accurate dietary kitchen food processing as well as accurate and timely reporting of the food/nutrient intake from such studies. Dietitians use ProNutra to plan, manage, and analyze food and nutrient intake while dietary kitchen staff use ProNESSy to accurately weigh and track foods prepared for research studies. Together, the two software modules provide health care researchers the unique ability to design precise nutrient-intake studies and to efficiently measure, manage, and monitor the preparation and consumption of the provided foods and nutrients. ProNESSy runs on a PC with a touch-sensitive screen connected to an electronic scale. ProNESSy converts study diets into detailed electronic step-by-step instructions to direct the diet preparation. The ''Weigh-In'' mode, used during diet assembly, ensures that each subject is served the correct weight of specified foods. The ''Weigh-Out'' mode is used to determine actual intake by weighing any uneaten food(s). Extensive error detection and prevention techniques are used to prevent errors.

BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health, 2020

IntroductionAdherence to cardioprotective dietary patterns can reduce risk for developing cardiom... more IntroductionAdherence to cardioprotective dietary patterns can reduce risk for developing cardiometabolic disease. Rates of diet assessment and counselling by physicians are low. Use of a diet screener that rapidly identifies individuals at higher risk due to suboptimal dietary choices could increase diet assessment and brief counselling in clinical care.MethodsWe evaluated the relative validity and reliability of a 9-item diet risk score (DRS) based on the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2015, a comprehensive measure of diet quality calculated from a 160-item, validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). We hypothesised that DRS (0 (low risk) to 27 (high risk)) would inversely correlate with HEI-2015 score. Adults aged 35 to 75 years were recruited from a national research volunteer registry (ResearchMatch.org) and completed the DRS and FFQ in random order on one occasion. To measure reliability, participants repeated the DRS within 3 months.ResultsIn total, 126 adults (87% female) com...

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) can be managed through diet and lifestyle changes. The ... more BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) can be managed through diet and lifestyle changes. The American Diabetes Association acknowledges that knowing what and when to eat is the most challenging aspect of diabetes management. Although current recommendations for self-monitoring of diet and glucose levels aim to improve glycemic stability among people with T2D, tracking all intake is burdensome and unsustainable. Thus, dietary self-monitoring approaches that are equally effective but are less burdensome should be explored. OBJECTIVE This study aims to examine the feasibility of an abbreviated dietary self-monitoring approach in patients with T2D, in which only carbohydrate-containing foods are recorded in a diet tracker. METHODS We used a mixed methods approach to quantitatively and qualitatively assess general and diet-related diabetes knowledge and the acceptability of reporting only carbohydrate-containing foods in 30 men and women with T2D. RESULTS The mean Diabetes Knowledge ...

British Journal of Nutrition, 2005

Nutrigenomics is the study of how constituents of the diet interact with genes, and their product... more Nutrigenomics is the study of how constituents of the diet interact with genes, and their products, to alter phenotype and, conversely, how genes and their products metabolise these constituents into nutrients, antinutrients, and bioactive compounds. Results from molecular and genetic epidemiological studies indicate that dietary unbalance can alter gene–nutrient interactions in ways that increase the risk of developing chronic disease. The interplay of human genetic variation and environmental factors will make identifying causative genes and nutrients a formidable, but not intractable, challenge. We provide specific recommendations for how to best meet this challenge and discuss the need for new methodologies and the use of comprehensive analyses of nutrient–genotype interactions involving large and diverse populations. The objective of the present paper is to stimulate discourse and collaboration among nutrigenomic researchers and stakeholders, a process that will lead to an incr...

Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2010

JMIR mHealth and uHealth

Background: New methods for assessing diet in research are being developed to address the limitat... more Background: New methods for assessing diet in research are being developed to address the limitations of traditional dietary assessment methods. Mobile device-assisted ecological momentary diet assessment (mEMDA) is a new dietary assessment method that has not yet been optimized and has the potential to minimize recall biases and participant burden while maximizing ecological validity. There have been limited efforts to characterize the use of mEMDA in behavioral research settings. Objective: The aims of this study were to summarize mEMDA protocols used in research to date, to characterize key aspects of these assessment approaches, and to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of mEMDA compared with the traditional dietary assessment methods as well as implications for future mEMDA research. Methods: Studies that used mobile devices and described mEMDA protocols to assess dietary intake were included. Data were extracted according to Preferred Reporting of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and Cochrane guidelines and then synthesized narratively. Results: The review included 20 studies with unique mEMDA protocols. Of these, 50% (10/20) used participant-initiated reports of intake at eating events (event-contingent mEMDA), and 50% (10/20) used researcher-initiated prompts requesting that participants report recent dietary intake (signal-contingent mEMDA). A majority of the study protocols (60%, 12/20) enabled participants to use mobile phones to report dietary data. Event-contingent mEMDA protocols most commonly assessed diet in real time, used dietary records for data collection (60%, 6/10), and provided estimates of energy and nutrient intake (60%, 6/10). All signal-contingent mEMDA protocols used a near real-time recall approach with unannounced (ie, random) abbreviated diet surveys. Most signal-contingent protocols (70%, 7/10) assessed the frequency with which (targeted) foods or food groups were consumed. Relatively few (30%, 6/20) studies compared mEMDA with the traditional dietary assessment methods.

Nutrients

Background: This pilot study collected preliminary data for the modification of the VioScreen Foo... more Background: This pilot study collected preliminary data for the modification of the VioScreen Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), an adult-validated, self-administered, web-based dietary assessment tool for use in older children. Methods: A convenience sample of 55 children, aged 6–14 years, completed the VioScreen FFQ and 3-day diet record (reference standard). Caregivers completed a short sociodemographic questionnaire. Reported dietary intakes from the VioScreen FFQ and 3-day diet record were calculated using standard nutrient databases, and descriptive statistics were used to examine differences in food/beverage items and portion sizes between the two methods. Informal focus groups obtained user feedback and identified components of the VioScreen FFQ that required modifications. Results: The highest de-attenuated Pearson correlation coefficients between the VioScreen FFQ and 3-day diet record were observed for iron (r = 0.69), saturated fat (r = 0.59), and vegetables (r = 0.56),...

American journal of preventive medicine, 2018

Accurate assessment of dietary intake and physical activity is a vital component for quality rese... more Accurate assessment of dietary intake and physical activity is a vital component for quality research in public health, nutrition, and exercise science. However, accurate and consistent methodology for the assessment of these components remains a major challenge. Classic methods use self-report to capture dietary intake and physical activity in healthy adult populations. However, these tools, such as questionnaires or food and activity records and recalls, have been shown to underestimate energy intake and expenditure as compared with direct measures like doubly labeled water. This paper summarizes recent technological advancements, such as remote sensing devices, digital photography, and multisensor devices, which have the potential to improve the assessment of dietary intake and physical activity in free-living adults. This review will provide researchers with emerging evidence in support of these technologies, as well as a quick reference for selecting the "right-sized"...

Computer-administered food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) can address limitations inherent in pa... more Computer-administered food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) can address limitations inherent in paper questionnaires by allowing very complex skip patterns, portion size estimation based on food pictures, and real-time error checking. We evaluated a web-based FFQ, the Graphical Food Frequency System (GraFFS). Participants completed the GraFFS, six telephone-administered 24-hour dietary recalls over the next 12 weeks, followed by a second GraFFS. Participants were 40 men and 34 women, aged 18 to 69 years, living in the Columbus, OH, area. Intakes of energy, macronutrients, and 17 micronutrients/food components were estimated from the GraFFS and the mean of all recalls. Bias (second GraFFS minus recalls) was -9%, -5%, +4%, and -4% for energy and percentages of energy from fat, carbohydrate, and protein, respectively. De-attenuated, energy-adjusted correlations (intermethod reliability) between the recalls and the second GraFFS for fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol were 0.82, 0.79, 0.67, and 0.90, respectively; for micronutrients/food components the median was 0.61 and ranged from 0.40 for zinc to 0.92 for beta carotene. The correlations between the two administrations of the GraFFS (test-retest reliability) for fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol were 0.60, 0.63, 0.73, and 0.87, respectively; among micronutrients/food components the median was 0.67 and ranged from 0.49 for vitamin B-12 to 0.82 for fiber. The measurement characteristics of the GraFFS were at least as good as those reported for most paper FFQs, and its high intermethod reliability suggests that further development of computer-administered FFQs is warranted.

Computer-administered food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) can address limitations inherent in pa... more Computer-administered food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) can address limitations inherent in paper questionnaires by allowing very complex skip patterns, portion size estimation based on food pictures, and real-time error checking. We evaluated a web-based FFQ, the Graphical Food Frequency System (GraFFS). Participants completed the GraFFS, six telephone-administered 24-hour dietary recalls over the next 12 weeks, followed by a second GraFFS. Participants were 40 men and 34 women, aged 18 to 69 years, living in the Columbus, OH, area. Intakes of energy, macronutrients, and 17 micronutrients/food components were estimated from the GraFFS and the mean of all recalls. Bias (second GraFFS minus recalls) was -9%, -5%, +4%, and -4% for energy and percentages of energy from fat, carbohydrate, and protein, respectively. De-attenuated, energy-adjusted correlations (intermethod reliability) between the recalls and the second GraFFS for fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol were 0.82, 0.79, 0.67, and 0.90, respectively; for micronutrients/food components the median was 0.61 and ranged from 0.40 for zinc to 0.92 for beta carotene. The correlations between the two administrations of the GraFFS (test-retest reliability) for fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol were 0.60, 0.63, 0.73, and 0.87, respectively; among micronutrients/food components the median was 0.67 and ranged from 0.49 for vitamin B-12 to 0.82 for fiber. The measurement characteristics of the GraFFS were at least as good as those reported for most paper FFQs, and its high intermethod reliability suggests that further development of computer-administered FFQs is warranted.

Journal of Food Composition and Analysis - J FOOD COMPOS ANAL

ABSTRACT Estimating food weight from data on food volume requires that density of the food be kno... more ABSTRACT Estimating food weight from data on food volume requires that density of the food be known. When both volume and weight are published on food tables the density can be calculated, however for many foods volume data are not available on the food table. Using a camera image of food to document dietary intake by automatically matching the food to a database entry requires that food volume be calculated and food weight estimated. This paper discusses some considerations when using USDA food tables to calculate composition of foods documented by camera image, as well as thoughts on measuring food volume and the potential for developing default values for density using available food volume data.

Journal of Food Composition and Analysis - J FOOD COMPOS ANAL

ABSTRACT Estimating food weight from data on food volume requires that density of the food be kno... more ABSTRACT Estimating food weight from data on food volume requires that density of the food be known. When both volume and weight are published on food tables the density can be calculated, however for many foods volume data are not available on the food table. Using a camera image of food to document dietary intake by automatically matching the food to a database entry requires that food volume be calculated and food weight estimated. This paper discusses some considerations when using USDA food tables to calculate composition of foods documented by camera image, as well as thoughts on measuring food volume and the potential for developing default values for density using available food volume data.

Journal of Nutrition, 2010

Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2010