About ASA24-Canada

 

What is ASA24-Canada?

The Automated Self-Administered 24-hour Dietary Assessment Tool (ASA24) is a web-based tool that enables automatically coded, self-administered 24-hour recalls and records. ASA24 was originally developed by the US National Cancer Institute and has been adapted for use in Canada by the Food Directorate at Health Canada. ASA24-Canada has been freely available since April 2014. An updated version was released in fall 2016.

The National Cancer Institute maintains a website with comprehensive information on ASA24. This ASA24-Canada website provides details specific to the Canadian adaptation. Please join the ASA24-Canada listserv, which will be used to send out information on new developments and can be accessed by researchers, clinicians, and educators to ask questions about how others have used ASA24. ​

Key features of ASA24-Canada

Distinct features of the Canadian version of ASA24 are:

• Inclusion of foods and drinks specific to the Canadian marketplace, including brand name and quick service restaurant items;
• Use of metric measurements for portion size estimation; 
• Linkage to an adapted nutrient databased on the Canadian Nutrient File (CNF 2015) and a Canadian recipe database used for surveillance; and
• Linkage to an adapted supplement database based on the Licensed Natural Health Products Database and supplemented by the NHANES Dietary Supplement Database 2007-2008. ​

A new version of the ASA24-Canada Respondent Website was released in the fall of 2016. This version includes:

• A French language option;
• The ability for Respondents to complete ASA24-Canada on smartphones and tablets;
• The capacity to collect food records in addition to recalls; and,
• The inclusion of food group variables in the analysis files.

The new version eliminated the need for the use of the Microsoft® Silverlight™ plug-in and is:

• A lightweight application requiring minimum memory usage and local storage, and no long term storage;
• An HTML5 application, which can run in any HTML5 capable browser used on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone; and,
• A highly dynamic application that relies on a high speed, reliable internet connection to communicate with the host server.

To obtain a sense of the look and feel of the 2016 version, please view the Respondent Demonstration Site for ASA24-2016 on the National Cancer Institute’s webpage.

ASA24-Canada-2014 will be phased out and will be available for data collection in studies only until March 2017. New studies will not be able to register to use ASA24-Canada-2014.

In-kind resources and funding to adapt and update ASA24-Canada have been provided by Health Canada’s Food Directorate, the Alberta Cancer Foundation and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer through funds allocated to Alberta’s Tomorrow Project and contributions from a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Award provided to Dr. David Hammond at the University of Waterloo. The adaptation was made possible by ongoing support from Dr. Amy Subar from the US National Cancer Institute.

For additional information on ASA24 and to register to use ASA24-Canada, please visit the National Cancer Institute's ASA24 website.

 

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