Table 1.

Summary and key features of twelve dish-based dietary assessment tools identified across the seventy-four publications

Tool No.	First author (year)	Target population*	Original purpose	Dietary variables assessed†	Tool type	PB or WB	Administration mode	Reference period	PS estimation method	Frequency categories for FFQ	No. of food or dish items	Time to complete
1	Kim (2009)(16)	Korean	For epidemiological research of Koreans	Energy, sixteen nutrients	FFQ	PB	NR	NR	Three categories: small, medium and large	Nine levels: almost never, once per month, 2 or 3 times per month, 1 or 2 times per week, 3 or 4 times per week, 5 or 6 times per week, once per day, twice per day and thrice per day	95	NR
2	Park (2011)(12) and Park (2012)(29)	Korean	For diet and cancer research in Korea	Eleven food groups, energy, fifteen nutrients	FFQ	PB	IA	Past year	Three categories: small, medium and large. Photographs provided	Nine levels for rice, soups, stews and side dishes (i.e., never to 3 times per day); nine levels for beverages (i.e., never to over 6 times per day); eight levels for fruits (i.e., never to over 4 times per day); eight levels for alcoholic beverages (i.e., never to twice per day)	112	NR
3	Kim (2015)(30)	Korean adults	To estimate the usual nutrient intake of Korean adults (developed for KNHANES)	Eleven food groups, energy, thirteen nutrients	FFQ	PB	IA	NR	Three categories: small, medium and large	Nine levels: none, 1 time per month, 2–3 times per month, 1 time per week, 2–4 times per week, 4–6 times per week, 1 time per day, 2 times per day and ≥3 times per day	109	NR
4	Yum and Lee (2016)(11)	Korean adolescents	To assess intake levels of major macro- and micronutrients based on dish-based items	Energy, fifteen nutrients	FFQ	PB	SA	NR	Three categories: less than the amount in the photo, close to the amount in the photo and more than the amount in the photo	Eight levels: <1 time a month, 1–3 times a month, once a week, 2–3 times a week, 4–6 times a week, once a day, 2 times a day and >3 times a day	71	NR
5	Sudo (2004)(26)	Rural Bangladeshi adults	To explore dietary habits of adult males and females in northwestern Bangladeshi villages under strong Muslim influence	Energy	FFQ	PB	IA	Past 1 month	Fixed PS	Nine levels: almost never, 1–3 times per month, once per week, 2–4 times per week, 5–6 times per week, once per day, 2–3 times per day, 4–6 times per day and >7 times per day	15	5 min
6	Lin (2017)(7)	Rural Bangladeshi population	A longitudinal study investigating arsenic exposure and biomarker response in Bangladesh	Seven food groups, energy, twenty-nine nutrients	FFQ	PB	IA	Past 12 months	Eleven categories: large plate, medium plate, small plate, large bowl, medium bowl, small bowl, glass, cup, large spoon, small spoon and piece. Visual aids using eating utensils provided	Five levels: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and never	42	NR
7	Keshteli (2014)(13)	Iranian adults	To develop easy-to-use FFQ for future epidemiological studies in Iran (developed for SEPAHAN project)	Foods, energy, nutrients (not specified)	FFQ	PB	SA	Past 12 months	Fixed PS	Six to nine levels. Six levels are never or less than once per month, 1–3 times per month, 1 time per week, 2–4 times per week, 5–6 times per week and 1–2 times per day	106	NR
8	Neelakantan (2016)(28) and Whitton (2017)(31)	Indian, Malay, and Chinese adults in Singapore	To assess the dietary intake of a multiethnic urban Asian population	Three food groups, energy, fifteen nutrients	FFQ	PB	IA	Past 12 months	Fixed PS	Open-ended (the number of times either ‘per day,’ ‘per week’ or ‘per month’ required)	163	45 min
9	Date (1996)(4) and Kobayashi (2011)(32)	Japanese	To enable the subjects to answer a dietary assessment questionnaire more accurately	Energy, thirteen nutrients(4) Energy, thirty-eight nutrients(32)	FFQ	PB	IA(4) SA(32)	Past year	Open-ended. Two-dimensional food model pictures provided(4) Six categories referring to the photographs in full-scale size; one-third, one-half, the same amount, 1·5 times, twice, ‘others’(32)	Open-ended(4) Seven to eleven levels(32): eleven levels were every day, 8–10 times per day, 6–7 times per day, 4–5 times per day, 2–3 times per day, 5–6 times per week, 3–4 times per week, 1–2 times per week, 2–3 times per month, 1 time per month and never	122(4) 74(32)	60 min(4)
10	Kobayashi (2010)(27) and Kobayashi (2011)(32)	Japanese children	To assess the regular dietary intake of Japanese children	Energy, forty-nine nutrients	FFQ	PB	NR	Past 1 month	Six categories referring to the photographs in full-scale size; one-third, one-half, the same amount, 1·5 times, twice, ‘others’	Seven to eleven levels: eleven levels were every day, 8–10 times per day, 6–7 times per day, 4–5 times per day, 2–3 times per day, 5–6 times per week, 3–4 times per week, 1–2 times per week, 2–3 times per month, 1 time per month and never	75	NR
11	Matsuzaki (2017)(14)	Japanese	Self-management of weight on an Internet website	Energy, thirteen nutrients	DR	WB	SA	NA	Seven categories: 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1, 1·5, 2 and 3 servings	NA	About 100 000‡	NR
12	Lee (1994)(15)	Chinese Americans	For epidemiological studies of diet and diseases in Chinese Americans	Energy, twelve nutrients	DHQ	PB	IA	Past year	Open-ended, reported as a multiple or fraction of the specified PS. Three-dimensional, actual-size food models representing the mixed dishes and single food items used	Open-ended	84	25–30 min

PB, paper based; WB, web based; PS, portion size; NR, not reported; IA, interviewer administered; KHANES, Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; SA, self-administered; SEPAHAN, Study on the Epidemiology of Psychological, Alimentary Health and Nutrition; NA, not applicable; DR, dietary record; DHQ, diet history questionnaire.

^*Target age or sex of the tool was not specified if not indicated otherwise.

^†Foods and nutrients used in each development and validation study.

^‡The number of dishes included in an online database from which respondents select their meal.