The Census Bureau recently undertook a research effort to revise the Individual Intake Questionnaire for the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII) sponsored by the Human Nutrition Information Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This questionnaire obtains a 24-hour food recall along with information about when the food was consumed, where the food was obtained, and other general health-related questions. Food recalls are collected for two non-consecutive days. This paper reports the results of research on the dietary intake portion of the CSFII. Strategies for revising the questionnaire include: (a) restructuring the dietary recall questions to improve their flow; (2) revising the strategy for respondents' initial recall of foods eaten the previous day; (3) adding cues to let respondents review their day several times to facilitate recall of additional food items; and (4) altering the wording of questions to clarify their intent and revising the content of response categories to make them more comprehensive and mutually exclusive. These strategies will be discussed in detail, and examples of their results will be discussed.
