ASA24® Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

ASA24 was-based designed to be self-administered. However, some researchers do use it as a interviewer tool to administer recalls. For example, interviewer administration of recalls might be helpful for respondents with low literacy skills. Where practical, it is advisable to have the ASA24 interface accessible to respondents to make use of visual cues such as the portion size images.

No, ASA24 is a web application and cannot be used offline. Respondents must be connected to the internet via cable, Wi-Fi, or a cellular connection to complete a record or recall.

If respondents have poor internet access or low literacy, researchers can have an interview administer ASA24 where there is adequate internet service. It is possible to enter information collected using a separate offline or paper-based tool (unrelated to ASA24 and provided by the researcher) into the ASA24 system to calculate nutrient or food group intakes. However, this manual method is time-consuming and details regarding intake may be lost.

The development of paper and offline versions of ASA24 is challenging given the dynamic nature and magnitude of the questions, and the level of detail that the ASA24 system captures. ASA24 has more than 2,824 unique detailed probe questions and more than 13 million unique food pathways made up of questions and answers.

Yes, ASA24 can help clinicians and patients understand the patient’s energy, nutrient, and food group intakes. The clinicians will serve as the researcher by setting up a study on the ASA24 researcher website and the patient can report their dietary intake as a respondent.

Clinicians can access automatic nutrient analyses and food group information via the ASA24 research website. Clinicians can also view the Respondent Nutrition Report that compares the patients’ reported diet with US dietary guidelines, or for ASA24-Canada, with the 2007 Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide food groupings.

Clinicians can share this report with their patients after they complete a recall or record. During a recall study set-up, clinicians can also opt for patients to receive this report immediately upon completion.

Yes, ASA24 can be used as an instructional tool to help educators and students understand the student’s energy, nutrient, and food group intakes. The educator will serve as the researcher by setting up a study on the ASA24 researcher website and the student can report their dietary intake as a respondent.

Then, educators can view a Respondent Nutrition Report that compares the students’ reported diet with dietary guidelines. Educators can share this report with their students after they complete a recall or record. During a recall study set-up, educators can also opt for students to receive this report immediately upon completion.

There are three ways to test ASA24:

1. Complete a recall using the ASA24 Respondent Demonstration (demo) version without a username or password. Recalls using US versions of ASA24 can be completed in English or Spanish. Recalls using the Canadian version of ASA24 can be completed in English or French. Note that the demo does not save data nor provide analysis file output.


2. Create a test study on the ASA24 researcher website to access the full system. This option requires you to create a researcher account (if you do not already have), a study, and at least one respondent-user account with a username and password. The test account(s) can be used to become familiar with the


3. Create a test respondent-user account(s) within an existing study. It is important to ensure that these test usernames can be distinguished from valid respondent usernames in the output files so that they can be excluded from analyses. You may want to consider using a range of test usernames that are distinct from the actual usernames. The test account(s) can be used to become familiar with the respondent experience and to verify study settings, and output analysis files.

Respondents can use the ASA24 respondent website with any HTML5 compliant web browser on a computer or mobile device. See HTML5TEST for more information about HTML5 compliant web browsers.

Researchers should access the ASA24 researcher website on computers with at least a 10" monitor for east of use. Certain functions like unlocking respondent accounts could reasonably be done on a mobile device. See the ASA24 System Requirements and Accessibility page for more details.

Start by creating a researcher account (i.e. username and password) on the ASA24 researcher website by providing your name, organization, phone number, and email address. You must also read and accept the ASA24 researcher agreement. After logging in with the temporary password emailed to you, create a new study and respondent accounts using the step-by-step process. More information is provided on the Researcher Instructions page.

Yes, once you create a study(ies) on the ASA24 researcher website, you can add or remove staff access at any time by editing the study details. Anyone managing study logistics, overseeing respondent progress, and requesting reports and output data will need to create a researcher account (i.e. username and password) to access the website before you them grant access.

There is no limit on the total number of respondents a single ASA24 study can accommodate. To use ASA24 for a very large study with thousands of respondents, either schedule your study in phases or send out requests to complete a recall/record on a rolling basis to make sure respondents are not all attempting to access the system concurrently (i.e. at the same time). Contact the ASA24 Help Desk by email at ASA24Helpdesk@westat.com to discuss management strategies for very large studies.

The ASA24 system was designed to manage multiple large epidemiologic studies simultaneously. Currently, the system can support up to 800 concurrent respondents entering data at any one time.

No training is required. The ASA24 respondent website was designed to be intuitive to ensure accurate self-reporting by the general population.

However, there are instructional materials for respondents, including Help Guides for Respondents and short instructional videos. If you meet with respondents in-person, you may also help them do a practice using the demo version.

There is no longer a child specific version of ASA24. New studies with children as respondents should use the most current version of ASA24. Refer to the publications section for articles with more detailed descriptions of the use of ASA24 with children.

We are not aware of specific studies that have utilized ASA24 in a low-literacy population, though there are some studies that used ASA24 in low-income populations. Some individuals in these low-income populations may also have low-literacy levels. Publications from these studies are listed on ASA24's publications web page in the tab for Development and Evaluation of ASA24.

In general, the ASA24 respondent website is most appropriate for those with at least a fifth-grade reading level and with respondents who are comfortable using computers, tablets, or mobile devices.

Although not essential, if your study design includes in-person contact with respondents prior to their completion of food recalls or records using ASA24, it can be helpful to orient them to the software through completion of a practice recall or record using the demonstration version in an environment where study staff are available to answer questions.

There are also instructional materials and videos that can be used by study staff and respondents to become familiar with the steps to follow to complete 24-hour recalls or food records.

It is your responsibility as the researcher to give your respondents information on when and where they should complete their recalls or records, including the ASA24 respondent website URL (asa24.nih.gov) and their usernames and passwords to access the site.

Respondents can be redirected from another study website to the ASA24 respondent website without having to log in directly to ASA24. To find out more about this single sign-on option, please view the ASA24 Costs web page. There is a nominal charge per study to set this up.

If a respondent forgets their username or password, they should contact you as the researcher who manages the study and respondent accounts on the ASA24 researcher website. NCI and the ASA24 Help Desk do not have access to any contact information or personally identifiable information for respondents and cannot interact with or support study respondents directly.

You can reset their password and retrieve the username and password file on the researcher site.

The Sleep module allows researchers to examine the associations between sleep and dietary intake, timing of eating, and other variables in the context of the 24-hour day. When researchers turn on the sleep module during the creation of new ASA24 studies, respondents will be prompted to answer questions about sleep timing, quantity, and quality after they complete their diet assessment. View more information about the Sleep module.

On average, independent of which modules are turned on, respondents complete a 24-hour recall or food record in 24 minutes, based on data from the US version of ASA24-2016 and ASA24-2018.

Most respondents complete their 24-hour recall in 17 to 34 minutes. Completing the first recall typically takes 2 to 3 minutes longer than subsequent recalls.

Having the source module turned on adds approximately one minute to the total time to complete a recall or record.

ASA24 generates the Respondent Nutrition Report that compares the respondent’s reported diet with country-specific dietary guidelines for US and Canadian versions. This report was designed with multiple rounds of user testing to ensure it is easily understood by the general population. After a respondent completes a recall or record you can access this report on the ASA24 researcher website and share it with the respondent. During a recall study set-up, you can also opt for respondents to receive this report immediately after completion. View more information about ASA24’s Respondent Nutrition Reports.

Please refer to our webpage with information about the confidentiality of Respondent data.

The ASA24 system does not specifically ask about the salt that respondents use when preparing or eating food because people in the US get most of their sodium from processed foods.

Sodium estimates from ASA24 are valid, according to a report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) [PDF]. ASA24 uses a modified version of the USDA’s Automated Multiple-Pass Method and the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies, which assumes that some salt is added in the preparation of foods like cooked vegetables and meats. Therefore, sodium intake estimates might sometimes appear higher than expected. In those cases, clinicians using ASA24 should discuss cooking methods and food sources with patients for whom sodium intake is a concern, to estimate their true sodium intake.

ASA24 analysis files contain the data needed to calculate HEI scores. Sample SAS code is available. For more information about how ASA24 continues to be updated to align with new versions of HEI, see the web pages that provide an overview and background of the HEI.

The US versions of ASA24 are typically available for 3 years. Depending on when a study starts collecting data during the version cycle affects how long study data will be available. When a version is retired, researchers will be prompted to download their data and if their study is continuing, transition to the new version of ASA24. For more information on transitioning studies, see information on Transitioning to the Newest Version of ASA24.

The Canadian and Australian versions do not follow this three year cycle; however, if a version is being retired, a similar notification process is followed instructing researchers to download their study data prior to the retirement date.

Yes, US versions have been available in English and Spanish since ASA24-2016 and the Canadian version has been available in English and French since ASA24-2018. The Australian version is available only in English.

Because the respondents specify their language upon sign-in to the respondent website, researchers do not need to pre-specify language during study set up. The ASA24 researcher website, including all output data, is available in English only. The Respondent Nutrition Report is returned to the respondents in their specified language.

The ASA24 respondent website can be translated to other languages but this will require additional funding and those interested should contact the ASA24 Help Desk. Please note that that ASA24 was developed for use in the US based on the foods commonly consumed in the US. Modifications to use ASA24 in other settings where food consumption patterns differ is feasible but requires substantial effort and funding. Please contact Dr. Kirsten Herrick for further information.

It may be possible to add a limited number of food, drinks, or dietary supplements to your study for items not found in the existing ASA24 database, particularly if they do not closely match an existing item. For additional information, please contact the ASA24 Help Desk by emailing ASA24Helpdesk@westat.com.

No, not at this time. To view nutrients currently included in the output data available for download from the research website, please view the sample files provided. After downloading these files, researchers can link these data with external sources to perform further analyses beyond those available within ASA24.

No. To transition a study, researchers must first create a new study with a new abbreviation in the newest version through the researcher website. ASA24 enforces a unique study abbreviation for each study. Each study is configured with a version that cannot be changed. This is to maintain data integrity of a study’s collected recalls. To transition versions while maintaining the same study abbreviation requires deleting the study and creating a new one with the new version of ASA24. This allows the use of the same study abbreviation without imposing data issues resulting from the different versions.

Each US version of ASA24 is typically available for about 3 years. During the third year, retirement warnings are sent out explaining how and when to transition studies to the newest version of ASA24. Researchers must download their ASA24 tracking and analysis data prior to the retirement of an ASA24 version used for their study. Before an ASA24 version is retired, researchers will receive multiple notifications with information on when studies will need to transition to a new version of ASA24. This information is also noted on the ASA24 researcher website.

Versions of ASA24 differ in the food list terms, question pathways, and nutrient analysis. For example, with the US versions of ASA24, new food and portion codes are incorporated to reflect changes in the food supply while some food and portion codes from previous versions no longer exist. Additionally, slight variations in nutrient and food group amounts between FNDDS updates can contribute to differences between versions of ASA24. For these reasons, data collected under one version cannot be re-analyzed using a newer version to generate updated nutrient and food group data files. Researchers using the ASA24 system should consider whether the slight changes outlined above would significantly impact their data before harmonizing data files between different versions of ASA24.

Please see the Comparisons of Versions page for more information about the databases that are used in different versions of ASA24.

Note: SAS code is available to convert the food group database from older versions to a comparable food group database as used in ASA24-2016 or subsequent versions.

In order to show and maintain support for the ASA24 system, documenting its use through publications is extremely useful to the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

To achieve this, we invite investigators to include the following sentence in the methods section of their manuscripts: Dietary intake data for (24-hour recalls OR food records) were collected and analyzed using the Automated Self-Administered 24-hour (ASA24) Dietary Assessment Tool, version (YEAR), developed by the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD.

Additionally, when citing the ASA24 system, please use either the ASA24 website (https://epi.grants.cancer.gov/asa24) or one of our development or evaluation publications.