Sample Size and Repeated Measures Required in Studies of Foods in the Homes of African-American Families
Open accessAbstract
Measurement of the home food environment is of interest to researchers because it affects food intake and is a feasible target for nutrition interventions. The objective of this study was to provide estimates to aid the calculation of sample size and number of repeated measures needed in studies of nutrients and foods in the home. We inventoried all foods in the homes of 80 African-American first-time mothers and determined 6 nutrient-related attributes. Sixty-three households were measured 3 times, 11 were measured twice, and 6 were measured once, producing 217 inventories collected at ~2-mo intervals. Following log transformations, number of foods, total energy, dietary fiber, and fat required only one measurement per household to achieve a correlation of 0.8 between the observed and true values. For percent energy from fat and energy density, 3 and 2 repeated measurements, respectively, were needed to achieve a correlation of 0.8. A sample size of 252 was needed to detect a difference of 25% of an SD in total energy with one measurement compared with 213 with 3 repeated measurements. Macronutrient characteristics of household foods appeared relatively stable over a 6-mo period and only 1 or 2 repeated measures of households may be sufficient for an efficient study design.
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The initial sample size was calculated using a rule of thumb of 15 minimum subjects per indicator, resulting in 840 subjects for 56 indicators.
“The initial sample size was calculated by using a rule of thumb calculation of 15 minimum subjects per indicator [98], resulting in 840 subjects for 56 indicators.”
From Fear of missing out, social media influencers, and the social, psychological and financial wellbeing of young consumers (2025) · cites this paper as [98]
The Statistical methods section describes sample-size calculations based on detectable differences between groups, not a minimum number of subjects per indicator. The Results report 80 participating households. Searches for the 15-subject rule and the 56-indicator, 840-subject calculation found no passage supporting the attributed rule; page numbers were unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.75)
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“Model 2 was adjusted for the total number of people reported to live in each household (un-weighted) as this has been shown to impact on home food availability previously((10,18)) and differs between the White and Pakistani families in this cohort((16)).”
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- Authors
- Stevens, J., Bryant, M., Wang, C.-H., Cai, J., & Bentley, M. E.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- University of Leeds (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Stevens, June
- Venue
- The Journal of Nutrition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-06
- Volume
- 142
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1123-1127
- ISSN
- 0022-3166 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3349983
- OpenAlex
- W2159901220
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 0.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Nutrition (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (submittedVersion)
- UNC Libraries
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (2r24hd050924-06)
- National Cancer Institute (R21CA125735)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R24 HD-050924, R01 HD0422119)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Nutritional Studies and Diet
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistical Methods in Epidemiology
- Keywords
- home food environment, sample size determination, repeated measures, African American families, primiparous women, energy density, energy from fat, dietary fiber, macronutrient composition, measurement stability, nutrition interventions
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Black or African American, Energy Intake, Family, Female, Food, Food Analysis, Food Supply, Humans, Nutrition Surveys, Research Design, Sample Size
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