INTRODUCTION: Although the effectiveness of training to improve the accuracy of diet self-reporting in adults is recognized, few studies evaluate its success in children. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effectiveness of training 7-to-10-year school children in their abi-lity to complete a food diary (FD) correctly. METHODS: The study was carried out in a public school in the city of São Paulo. Forty schoolchildren of both genders participated in the training, which consisted of 3 sessions of 30 minutes each. The effectiveness of the training was assessed by 3 examiners, who evaluated data completion before and after the training sessions. The examiners attri-buted scores ranging from 0 to 5 to aspects such as identification, detail and quantification of foods in FDs. Medium score for each aspect was subsequently calculated. Wilcoxon test was used to compare depen-dent samples. RESULTS: There was evidence of statistical difference in the three aspects when before-and-after training scores were assessed: identification (p<0.001), detail (p=0.003) and quantification (p<0.001) of foods. Most values were higher after training. CONCLUSION: It is possible to increase 7-10-year-old school children's ability to complete a Food Diary after participating in a training program similar to the one presented in this paper.
training; Food diaries; Dietary intake; Students; Child
