Using digital food photography to assess the dietary diversity of Indian adolescents – A pilot study

Background Digital Food Photography (DFP) has emerged as a popular tool for dietary assessment. DFP can leverage adolescents' image-sharing practices on social media platforms to examine their dietary practices. Objective The present study aims to test the reliability of using DFP to assess dietary diversity (DD) among Indian adolescents. Design Using a cross-sectional study design, the pilot survey was conducted among Indian secondary school adolescents (9 th – 12 th Grades) attending two government and two private schools in Varanasi to assess the efficacy of the DFP technique in measuring DD. The participants were asked to click photographs of all food items consumed by them throughout the day for a period of seven days using their smartphones. Sample Fifty-five adolescents (30 boys; 25 girls) completed the survey. Results The DFP technique demonstrated acceptable reliability for assessing DD, with four of the ten food groups defined by the FAO guide achieving ( r ) > 0.35 for consumption between Day 1 and 7. There were no significant differences in the consumption of ten main food groups across seven days, highlighting consistency in responses during this period (p>0.05). Out of the ten main food groups, the highest consumption was observed in two groups: grains, white roots, tubers, and plantains, as well as pulses. Unhealthy dietary patterns were noted, with moderate consumption of other beverages and foods, fried snacks, and sweets reported. Across the seven days, the prevalence of minimum dietary diversity ranged from 7.3% to 18.2%. Conclusions Overall, the results suggest that the DFP dietary recall is a reliable dietary assessment tool that can be used to measure DD among adolescents in India.