PubMed:
Provider: NLM
Database: PubMed (National Library of Medicine), https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Date(s) Searched: October 28, 2026
Date range searched: 2020 to 2026
Language: English
Publication types excluded: Comment, Editorial, Letter, Case Reports, Preprint
Final count: 19,074 (line 13)
Search Terms:

No. | Query | Results
1 | "Child"[Mesh] OR "Infant"[Mesh] OR "Adolescent"[Mesh] OR "Pediatrics"[Mesh] | 4,358,818
2 | child*[tiab] OR pediatric[tiab] OR paediatric[tiab] OR adolescen*[tiab] OR youth*[tiab] OR teen*[tiab] OR infant*[tiab] OR toddler*[tiab] OR preschool*[tiab] OR schoolchildren[tiab] OR "school aged"[tiab] OR "school age"[tiab] OR kindergarten*[tiab] OR boys[tiab] OR girls[tiab] | 2,888,412
3 | 1 OR 2 | 5,160,599
4 | "Diet"[Mesh] OR "Diet Surveys"[Mesh] OR "Diet Records"[Mesh] OR "Nutrition Assessment"[Mesh] OR "Nutritional Status"[Mesh] OR "Energy Intake"[Mesh] OR "Eating"[Mesh] OR "Feeding Behavior"[Mesh] OR "Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena"[Mesh] OR "Exercise"[Mesh] OR "Physical Fitness"[Mesh] OR "Sedentary Behavior"[Mesh] OR "Screen Time"[Mesh] OR "Accelerometry"[Mesh] OR "Actigraphy"[Mesh] OR "Fitness Trackers"[Mesh] OR "Pediatric Obesity"[Mesh] OR "Overweight"[Mesh] OR "Body Mass Index"[Mesh] OR "Anthropometry"[Mesh] OR "Waist Circumference"[Mesh] OR "Skinfold Thickness"[Mesh] OR "Body Composition"[Mesh] OR "Growth Charts"[Mesh] OR "Malnutrition"[Mesh] OR "Child Nutrition Disorders"[Mesh] OR "Thinness"[Mesh] OR "Growth Disorders"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Failure to Thrive"[Mesh] | 1,731,797
5 | diet*[tiab] OR nutrition*[tiab] OR "food intake"[tiab] OR "energy intake"[tiab] OR "food frequency questionnaire*"[tiab] OR "24 hour recall*"[tiab] OR "food record*"[tiab] OR "eating behavior*"[tiab] OR "eating habit*"[tiab] OR "feeding practice*"[tiab] OR "food environment*"[tiab] OR "home food"[tiab] OR "food availability"[tiab] OR "physical activit*"[tiab] OR exercis*[tiab] OR sedentar*[tiab] OR "screen time"[tiab] OR accelerometer*[tiab] OR pedometer*[tiab] OR fitness[tiab] OR obes*[tiab] OR overweight[tiab] OR underweight[tiab] OR adipos*[tiab] OR "body fat"[tiab] OR "body mass index"[tiab] OR BMI[tiab] OR "weight status"[tiab] OR anthropometr*[tiab] OR "waist circumference"[tiab] OR "waist to height ratio"[tiab] OR skinfold*[tiab] OR "body composition"[tiab] OR "bioelectrical impedance"[tiab] OR malnutrition[tiab] OR malnourish*[tiab] OR undernutrition[tiab] OR undernourish*[tiab] OR stunting[tiab] OR wasting[tiab] OR "mid upper arm circumference"[tiab] OR MUAC[tiab] OR "growth monitoring"[tiab] | 2,541,244
6 | 4 OR 5 | 3,265,976
7 | "Reproducibility of Results"[Mesh] OR "Psychometrics"[Mesh] OR "Validation Studies as Topic"[Mesh] OR "Sensitivity and Specificity"[Mesh] OR "Observer Variation"[Mesh] OR "Feasibility Studies"[Mesh] OR "Data Accuracy"[Mesh] | 1,245,561
8 | validat*[tiab] OR validity[tiab] OR reliability[tiab] OR reproducibility[tiab] OR repeatability[tiab] OR "test retest"[tiab] OR "intraclass correlation"[tiab] OR "Bland Altman"[tiab] OR "limits of agreement"[tiab] OR "internal consistency"[tiab] OR Cronbach[tiab] OR psychometric*[tiab] OR "measurement properties"[tiab] OR "measurement error"[tiab] OR feasibility[tiab] OR "diagnostic accuracy"[tiab] OR "receiver operating characteristic"[tiab] OR "doubly labeled water"[tiab] OR "doubly labelled water"[tiab] OR "method comparison"[tiab] | 2,169,661
9 | 7 OR 8 | 2,878,834
10 | 3 AND 6 AND 9 | 56,057
11 | "Comment"[Publication Type] OR "Editorial"[Publication Type] OR "Letter"[Publication Type] OR "Case Reports"[Publication Type] OR "Preprint"[Publication Type] | 4,884,955
12 | 10 NOT 11 | 55,084
13 | 12 AND english[la] AND 2020:2026[dp] | 19,074

Final query as run through NCBI E-utilities (line 13):
(((("Child"[Mesh] OR "Infant"[Mesh] OR "Adolescent"[Mesh] OR "Pediatrics"[Mesh]) OR (child*[tiab] OR pediatric[tiab] OR paediatric[tiab] OR adolescen*[tiab] OR youth*[tiab] OR teen*[tiab] OR infant*[tiab] OR toddler*[tiab] OR preschool*[tiab] OR schoolchildren[tiab] OR "school aged"[tiab] OR "school age"[tiab] OR kindergarten*[tiab] OR boys[tiab] OR girls[tiab])) AND (("Diet"[Mesh] OR "Diet Surveys"[Mesh] OR "Diet Records"[Mesh] OR "Nutrition Assessment"[Mesh] OR "Nutritional Status"[Mesh] OR "Energy Intake"[Mesh] OR "Eating"[Mesh] OR "Feeding Behavior"[Mesh] OR "Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena"[Mesh] OR "Exercise"[Mesh] OR "Physical Fitness"[Mesh] OR "Sedentary Behavior"[Mesh] OR "Screen Time"[Mesh] OR "Accelerometry"[Mesh] OR "Actigraphy"[Mesh] OR "Fitness Trackers"[Mesh] OR "Pediatric Obesity"[Mesh] OR "Overweight"[Mesh] OR "Body Mass Index"[Mesh] OR "Anthropometry"[Mesh] OR "Waist Circumference"[Mesh] OR "Skinfold Thickness"[Mesh] OR "Body Composition"[Mesh] OR "Growth Charts"[Mesh] OR "Malnutrition"[Mesh] OR "Child Nutrition Disorders"[Mesh] OR "Thinness"[Mesh] OR "Growth Disorders"[Mesh:NoExp] OR "Failure to Thrive"[Mesh]) OR (diet*[tiab] OR nutrition*[tiab] OR "food intake"[tiab] OR "energy intake"[tiab] OR "food frequency questionnaire*"[tiab] OR "24 hour recall*"[tiab] OR "food record*"[tiab] OR "eating behavior*"[tiab] OR "eating habit*"[tiab] OR "feeding practice*"[tiab] OR "food environment*"[tiab] OR "home food"[tiab] OR "food availability"[tiab] OR "physical activit*"[tiab] OR exercis*[tiab] OR sedentar*[tiab] OR "screen time"[tiab] OR accelerometer*[tiab] OR pedometer*[tiab] OR fitness[tiab] OR obes*[tiab] OR overweight[tiab] OR underweight[tiab] OR adipos*[tiab] OR "body fat"[tiab] OR "body mass index"[tiab] OR BMI[tiab] OR "weight status"[tiab] OR anthropometr*[tiab] OR "waist circumference"[tiab] OR "waist to height ratio"[tiab] OR skinfold*[tiab] OR "body composition"[tiab] OR "bioelectrical impedance"[tiab] OR malnutrition[tiab] OR malnourish*[tiab] OR undernutrition[tiab] OR undernourish*[tiab] OR stunting[tiab] OR wasting[tiab] OR "mid upper arm circumference"[tiab] OR MUAC[tiab] OR "growth monitoring"[tiab])) AND (("Reproducibility of Results"[Mesh] OR "Psychometrics"[Mesh] OR "Validation Studies as Topic"[Mesh] OR "Sensitivity and Specificity"[Mesh] OR "Observer Variation"[Mesh] OR "Feasibility Studies"[Mesh] OR "Data Accuracy"[Mesh]) OR (validat*[tiab] OR validity[tiab] OR reliability[tiab] OR reproducibility[tiab] OR repeatability[tiab] OR "test retest"[tiab] OR "intraclass correlation"[tiab] OR "Bland Altman"[tiab] OR "limits of agreement"[tiab] OR "internal consistency"[tiab] OR Cronbach[tiab] OR psychometric*[tiab] OR "measurement properties"[tiab] OR "measurement error"[tiab] OR feasibility[tiab] OR "diagnostic accuracy"[tiab] OR "receiver operating characteristic"[tiab] OR "doubly labeled water"[tiab] OR "doubly labelled water"[tiab] OR "method comparison"[tiab]))) NOT ("Comment"[Publication Type] OR "Editorial"[Publication Type] OR "Letter"[Publication Type] OR "Case Reports"[Publication Type] OR "Preprint"[Publication Type])) AND english[la] AND 2020:2026[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: 45 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. 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 96c3df2b-1512-440e-b1ba-790e462afc26, exported October 29, 2026 from the PICO search builder.