Agreement between weekly vs. daily assessment of appetite

Hunger, satiation, and other aspects of appetite are frequently measured using end-anchored line ratings. This study investigated whether a single assessment of appetite, which covered the prior week, would yield the same results obtained by assessing appetite 3 days during the week. Participants were 51 women and 9 men (age mean 44.1, SD 9.8 years; BMI mean 38.0, SD 5.2 kg/m2) in a study evaluating the effectiveness of four weight control programs, three of which used sibutramine (15 mg/d). On three separate days of one week, participants rated appetite for that day. During a subsequent clinic visit, participants completed the same ratings in reference to the past week. The three daily values were averaged. All correlations between weekly and averaged daily values were strongly positive (r=0.63–0.80) and statistically significant (all p<0.001). All mean daily and weekly ratings fell within 3.3–7.2 mm of each other. Thus, good agreement was observed between the average daily assessments and one weekly assessment. The weekly assessment of appetite in the clinic appears to have several benefits, including uniformity of test administration and decreased burden on participants.