Development and validation of the Day in the Life Questionnaire (DILQ) as a measure of fruit and vegetable questionnaire for 7-9 year olds

The Day in the Life Questionnaire (DILQ) was developed as a supervised classroom exercise to measure children's consumption of fruit and vegetables. The DILQ uses words and pictures to encourage the child to recall and describe a range of activities from the previous day, including their entire food intake. This study tested the validity and reliability of the DILQ for children aged 7-9 years (n = 255) in four English schools. Reliability, validity and sensitivity to change were assessed through repeated rounds of data collection. Comparisons were made of observations during school breaks and classroom completion of the DILQ. Children enjoyed completing the DILQ and teachers thought it appropriate for the age group. The questionnaire performed either well or acceptably on all validity, reliability and sensitivity tests. The DILQ can be recommended as a method of collecting data for fruit and vegetable consumption from children aged 7-9 in the classroom. The validation study included comparison of schools with and without 'fruit only' breaktime policies, and sensitivity to a brief intervention in which free fruit was distributed at morning break. The results suggest that it would be a sensitive measure for descriptive studies, before and after studies and controlled trials.