Research

Mixed

Estimating individual dietary intake from household-level consumption data using standard allocation methods (Adult Male Equivalent or Per Capita) systematically overestimates actual individual consumption for nearly all food groups and nutrients.

If you are using household budget data to guess what one person eats, assume the numbers are too high. The error is not random; it consistently overestimates intake, especially for fruits, vegetables, and vitamins. Do not use these estimates for individual clinical advice; they are only useful for broad population-level trends if corrected for this known bias.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
Individualized household estimates overestimated individual intakes from 24hR for all dietary factors using either estimation method (P<0.001 for each), except for starchy vegetables... For foods, overestimation ranged from 4% for seafood to about 240% for fruits, and for nutrients from 11% for carbohydrates and polyunsaturated fats to 55% for vitamin C.
Dimitra Karageorgou et al. · PLoS ONE · 2018

Why this rating

Large national sample (n=22,173), rigorous comparison against 24-hour recalls, and statistical significance across 33 indicators.

Source

Assessing dietary intakes from household budget surveys: A national analysis in Bangladesh

Dimitra Karageorgou et al. · PLoS ONE · 2018

DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0202831

cross_sectional · n=22173Cited 34×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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