PubMed:
Provider: NLM
Database: PubMed (National Library of Medicine), https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Date(s) Searched: October 28, 2026
Date range searched: 2015-present
Language: English
Publication types excluded: Comment, Editorial, Letter, Case Reports, Preprint
Animal-only studies excluded: animals[mh] NOT humans[mh]
Final count: 13,444 (line 16)
Search Terms:

No. | Query | Results
1 | "Child"[Mesh] OR "Infant"[Mesh] OR "Adolescent"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Pediatrics"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Pediatric Obesity"[Mesh:NoExp] | 4,357,913
2 | children[tiab] OR child[tiab] OR childhood[tiab] OR pediatric[tiab] OR paediatric[tiab] OR adolescen*[tiab] OR youth*[tiab] OR teenager*[tiab] OR infant*[tiab] OR toddler*[tiab] OR preschool*[tiab] OR schoolchild*[tiab] OR "school age"[tiab] OR "school aged"[tiab] OR boys[tiab] OR girls[tiab] | 2,843,339
3 | 1 OR 2 | 5,126,943
4 | "Diet"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Diet, Healthy"[Mesh] OR "Nutrition Surveys"[Mesh] OR "Diet Records"[Mesh] OR "Energy Intake"[Mesh] OR "Eating"[Mesh] OR "Feeding Behavior"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Food Preferences"[Mesh] OR "Nutrition Assessment"[Mesh] OR "Nutritional Status"[Mesh] OR "Sugar-Sweetened Beverages"[Mesh] OR "Exercise"[Mesh] OR "Motor Activity"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Sedentary Behavior"[Mesh] OR "Screen Time"[Mesh] OR "Accelerometry"[Mesh] OR "Actigraphy"[Mesh] OR "Fitness Trackers"[Mesh] OR "Overweight"[Mesh] OR "Thinness"[Mesh] OR "Malnutrition"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Protein-Energy Malnutrition"[Mesh] OR "Severe Acute Malnutrition"[Mesh] OR "Child Nutrition Disorders"[Mesh] OR "Anthropometry"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Body Mass Index"[Mesh] OR "Waist Circumference"[Mesh] OR "Skinfold Thickness"[Mesh] OR "Waist-Hip Ratio"[Mesh] OR "Body Weight"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Body Height"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Growth Charts"[Mesh] OR "Body Composition"[Mesh] OR "Adiposity"[Mesh] | 1,384,803
5 | "dietary intake"[tiab] OR "food intake"[tiab] OR "diet quality"[tiab] OR "dietary assessment"[tiab] OR "dietary pattern*"[tiab] OR "food frequency questionnaire*"[tiab] OR "24 hour recall*"[tiab] OR "dietary recall*"[tiab] OR "food record*"[tiab] OR "food diar*"[tiab] OR "healthy eating index"[tiab] OR "eating habit*"[tiab] OR "eating behavio*"[tiab] OR "food environment*"[tiab] OR "home food"[tiab] OR "fruit and vegetable*"[tiab] OR "nutritional status"[tiab] OR "nutritional assessment"[tiab] OR "nutrition screening"[tiab] OR "physical activit*"[tiab] OR "physically active"[tiab] OR sedentar*[tiab] OR "screen time"[tiab] OR accelerometer*[tiab] OR accelerometry[tiab] OR pedometer*[tiab] OR actigraph*[tiab] OR "step count*"[tiab] OR "moderate to vigorous"[tiab] OR MVPA[tiab] OR "energy expenditure"[tiab] OR "doubly labeled water"[tiab] OR "doubly labelled water"[tiab] OR "body mass index"[tiab] OR BMI[tiab] OR anthropometr*[tiab] OR "waist circumference"[tiab] OR "waist to height"[tiab] OR skinfold*[tiab] OR "body fat"[tiab] OR adiposity[tiab] OR "body composition"[tiab] OR "bioelectrical impedance"[tiab] OR overweight[tiab] OR obes*[tiab] OR underweight[tiab] OR malnutrition[tiab] OR malnourish*[tiab] OR undernutrition[tiab] OR undernourish*[tiab] OR stunting[tiab] OR stunted[tiab] OR wasting[tiab] OR "mid upper arm circumference"[tiab] OR MUAC[tiab] OR "weight for height"[tiab] OR "height for age"[tiab] OR "weight for age"[tiab] OR "growth chart*"[tiab] | 1,286,093
6 | 4 OR 5 | 2,024,003
7 | "Reproducibility of Results"[Mesh] OR "Psychometrics"[Mesh] OR "Validation Studies as Topic"[Mesh] | 577,818
8 | validat*[tiab] OR validity[tiab] OR reliabilit*[tiab] OR reproducib*[tiab] OR psychometric*[tiab] OR "test retest"[tiab] OR "intraclass correlation*"[tiab] OR "Bland Altman"[tiab] OR "limits of agreement"[tiab] OR "measurement propert*"[tiab] | 1,782,823
9 | 7 OR 8 | 2,047,170
10 | "Surveys and Questionnaires"[Mesh] | 1,414,966
11 | questionnaire*[tiab] OR instrument*[tiab] OR tool[tiab] OR tools[tiab] OR checklist*[tiab] OR inventor*[tiab] OR index[tiab] OR score*[tiab] OR scale[tiab] OR recall*[tiab] OR survey*[tiab] OR measure[tiab] OR measures[tiab] | 7,208,235
12 | 10 OR 11 | 7,666,293
13 | 3 AND 6 AND 9 AND 12 | 22,186
14 | "Comment"[Publication Type] OR "Editorial"[Publication Type] OR "Letter"[Publication Type] OR "Case Reports"[Publication Type] OR "Preprint"[Publication Type] OR (animals[mh] NOT humans[mh]) | 10,281,432
15 | 13 NOT 14 | 21,971
16 | 15 AND english[la] AND 2015:3000[dp] | 13,444

Final query as run through NCBI E-utilities (line 16):
(((("Child"[Mesh] OR "Infant"[Mesh] OR "Adolescent"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Pediatrics"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Pediatric Obesity"[Mesh:NoExp]) OR (children[tiab] OR child[tiab] OR childhood[tiab] OR pediatric[tiab] OR paediatric[tiab] OR adolescen*[tiab] OR youth*[tiab] OR teenager*[tiab] OR infant*[tiab] OR toddler*[tiab] OR preschool*[tiab] OR schoolchild*[tiab] OR "school age"[tiab] OR "school aged"[tiab] OR boys[tiab] OR girls[tiab])) AND (("Diet"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Diet, Healthy"[Mesh] OR "Nutrition Surveys"[Mesh] OR "Diet Records"[Mesh] OR "Energy Intake"[Mesh] OR "Eating"[Mesh] OR "Feeding Behavior"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Food Preferences"[Mesh] OR "Nutrition Assessment"[Mesh] OR "Nutritional Status"[Mesh] OR "Sugar-Sweetened Beverages"[Mesh] OR "Exercise"[Mesh] OR "Motor Activity"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Sedentary Behavior"[Mesh] OR "Screen Time"[Mesh] OR "Accelerometry"[Mesh] OR "Actigraphy"[Mesh] OR "Fitness Trackers"[Mesh] OR "Overweight"[Mesh] OR "Thinness"[Mesh] OR "Malnutrition"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Protein-Energy Malnutrition"[Mesh] OR "Severe Acute Malnutrition"[Mesh] OR "Child Nutrition Disorders"[Mesh] OR "Anthropometry"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Body Mass Index"[Mesh] OR "Waist Circumference"[Mesh] OR "Skinfold Thickness"[Mesh] OR "Waist-Hip Ratio"[Mesh] OR "Body Weight"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Body Height"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Growth Charts"[Mesh] OR "Body Composition"[Mesh] OR "Adiposity"[Mesh]) OR ("dietary intake"[tiab] OR "food intake"[tiab] OR "diet quality"[tiab] OR "dietary assessment"[tiab] OR "dietary pattern*"[tiab] OR "food frequency questionnaire*"[tiab] OR "24 hour recall*"[tiab] OR "dietary recall*"[tiab] OR "food record*"[tiab] OR "food diar*"[tiab] OR "healthy eating index"[tiab] OR "eating habit*"[tiab] OR "eating behavio*"[tiab] OR "food environment*"[tiab] OR "home food"[tiab] OR "fruit and vegetable*"[tiab] OR "nutritional status"[tiab] OR "nutritional assessment"[tiab] OR "nutrition screening"[tiab] OR "physical activit*"[tiab] OR "physically active"[tiab] OR sedentar*[tiab] OR "screen time"[tiab] OR accelerometer*[tiab] OR accelerometry[tiab] OR pedometer*[tiab] OR actigraph*[tiab] OR "step count*"[tiab] OR "moderate to vigorous"[tiab] OR MVPA[tiab] OR "energy expenditure"[tiab] OR "doubly labeled water"[tiab] OR "doubly labelled water"[tiab] OR "body mass index"[tiab] OR BMI[tiab] OR anthropometr*[tiab] OR "waist circumference"[tiab] OR "waist to height"[tiab] OR skinfold*[tiab] OR "body fat"[tiab] OR adiposity[tiab] OR "body composition"[tiab] OR "bioelectrical impedance"[tiab] OR overweight[tiab] OR obes*[tiab] OR underweight[tiab] OR malnutrition[tiab] OR malnourish*[tiab] OR undernutrition[tiab] OR undernourish*[tiab] OR stunting[tiab] OR stunted[tiab] OR wasting[tiab] OR "mid upper arm circumference"[tiab] OR MUAC[tiab] OR "weight for height"[tiab] OR "height for age"[tiab] OR "weight for age"[tiab] OR "growth chart*"[tiab])) AND (("Reproducibility of Results"[Mesh] OR "Psychometrics"[Mesh] OR "Validation Studies as Topic"[Mesh]) OR (validat*[tiab] OR validity[tiab] OR reliabilit*[tiab] OR reproducib*[tiab] OR psychometric*[tiab] OR "test retest"[tiab] OR "intraclass correlation*"[tiab] OR "Bland Altman"[tiab] OR "limits of agreement"[tiab] OR "measurement propert*"[tiab])) AND (("Surveys and Questionnaires"[Mesh]) OR (questionnaire*[tiab] OR instrument*[tiab] OR tool[tiab] OR tools[tiab] OR checklist*[tiab] OR inventor*[tiab] OR index[tiab] OR score*[tiab] OR scale[tiab] OR recall*[tiab] OR survey*[tiab] OR measure[tiab] OR measures[tiab]))) NOT ("Comment"[Publication Type] OR "Editorial"[Publication Type] OR "Letter"[Publication Type] OR "Case Reports"[Publication Type] OR "Preprint"[Publication Type] OR (animals[mh] NOT humans[mh]))) AND english[la] AND 2015:3000[dp]

AI-use statement:
The PubMed search strategy was drafted with the PICO search builder. It used the large language model claude-opus-5-5 (Anthropic; accessed October 28, 2026) to propose search concepts and terms from the review question. The tool made 1 call to the model at high effort (the draft); claude-opus-5-5 was requested and answered it. A refusal fallback was enabled (had the model declined a request, the API could have run it again on another model Anthropic recommends); it was not used. Every MeSH heading, Supplementary Concept and publication type the strategy searches was checked against NLM MeSH (id.nlm.nih.gov) before use: 48 valid. Each numbered line was run in PubMed through NCBI E-utilities on October 28, 2026, and PubMed's own diagnostics (phrases not found, ignored words, lost truncation) were checked. The strategy was tested against 3 known relevant studies that were not shown to the model: 3 were retrieved (95% CI 29%–100%). Retrieving known studies does not prove the search is complete. The run has 2 saved versions (AI draft, repairs and the searcher's edits). A searcher must review the strategy before it is used. The prompts, the model output and every version are in the provenance file (JSON export).

Review question: In children and adolescents under 18 years, what measures of nutrition (dietary intake, diet quality, the home food environment), physical activity, and obesity or malnutrition (such as BMI and other anthropometric indices) have been developed or tested for validity, reliability or feasibility, and how do these measures compare with one another? Include studies from any setting, so that measures that could be used in primary care are not missed.
Run 539fb740-6f56-4ef4-8519-3c6f7351b928, exported October 29, 2026 from the PICO search builder.