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A Simple and Intelligent, Web‐Based Dietary Assessment Tool
Author(s) -
Buzzell Paul R.,
Power Mariya,
Pintauro Stephen J.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.23.1_supplement.631.2
Subject(s) - computer science , recall , process (computing) , interview , interface (matter) , matching (statistics) , world wide web , phrase , web application , human–computer interaction , multimedia , artificial intelligence , medicine , psychology , bubble , pathology , maximum bubble pressure method , parallel computing , political science , law , cognitive psychology , operating system
In person dietary assessment methods, such as the 24 hour recall method, are expensive and require the assistance of a highly trained interviewer. This often limits their use to relatively small and perhaps only local populations. We developed a Web‐based dietary assessment tool that is simple enough to be used by children and that is capable of generating results similar to that obtained from an in‐person 24 hour recall. In addition, it can be easily incorporated into a Website for online food diary or journal use. The tool is designed for use by young adolescents, but it can easily be adapted for use by adults. Its intuitive interface, featuring a talking "healthy food buddy," is self‐explanatory and allows easy navigation through its screens. The user is guided and prompted through all steps of diet entry and analysis. In addition, the program is designed to be "intelligent." That is, it will "learn" what foods in the USDA database are most often matched to a particular food entry term or phrase. The more the program is used, the better it will perform at quickly matching food entry phrases to the correct database choices. These real‐time enhancements to the web application, based upon usage of the application, occur transparently to the end‐user. We are currently in the process of validating this program against the in‐person 24‐hour recall method in a group of middle school students.