could telenutrition be applied interchangeably with the face-to-face interview for dietary intake assessment in patients with type 2 diabetes during the covid-19 pandemic?

Background: covid-19 pandemic has caused limitations, in patients’ accessibility in clinical and research settings. we sought whether telenutrition could be applied interchangeably with face-to-face interview for dietary intake assessment by 24-hour recall in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (t2dm) during the covid-19 pandemic.methods: sixty-eight females with t2dm aged 50-55 years were enrolled randomly in a descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study. the patients completed three consecutive 24-hour dietary recalls. the first one was a face-to-face interview, and the subsequent two recalls were conducted by telephone call. the total energy and 18 selected nutrients intake were calculated for the three interviews.results: the mean (±sd) age of participants was 53.97±2.14 years. the face-to-face interview resulted in significantly higher total energy and 18 selected nutrients intake than the two telenutrition interviews (p value range: 0.031 - 0.001). no significant differences were found between the data provided from the two telenutrition interviews.conclusion: telenutrition underreports and underestimates the total energy and nutrient intakes compared with the face-to-face interview in the 24-hour dietary recall. therefore, it cannot be recommended to be applied interchangeably with a face-to-face interview for dietary intake assessment during the covid-19 pandemic, especially in patients whose nutrition assessment is of clinical importance. a combination of the two methods using new communication applications (e.g. whatsapp) may cover the defects of telenutrition method.