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My Plate visual mobile application device for college students’ food intake tracking (1022.10)
Author(s) -
Teo Yi Min,
Pimentel Teresa,
Wong Siew Sun,
Cluskey Mary,
Dorbolo Jon,
Dinsmore Mark,
Flynn Rebecca
Publication year - 2014
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.28.1_supplement.1022.10
Subject(s) - meal , portion size , food intake , tracking (education) , food consumption , mobile apps , computer science , focus group , food science , psychology , medicine , world wide web , business , biology , pedagogy , marketing , agricultural economics , economics
Objectives : Test the feasibility of a mobile application to track college students' food intake. Materials and Methods : The mobile app used a MyPlate visual concept for food data entry with a built‐in serving size estimation guide. Each user was instructed to record food intake by tapping the corresponding food group on the visual plate for each serving consumed. Subjects photographed and described their meal type, place and time of consumption and satiety upon completion. Eleven students (36% female, aged 18‐21) having two 3‐day food records participated in this feasibility study in Feb‐Mar 2013, including one online survey and a focus group). Meal photos were compared to meal descriptions, food groups, and serving sizes. Results: The mobile app was convenient to use however, meal photos were incomplete. Suggested improvements included: 1) increase number of functions (e.g. caloric intake display); 2) enable viewing and editing of past entries (e.g, to adjust for dates and times and add forgotten foods; 3) a photo‐tagging system to match photos to corresponding meal data; and 4) increase text length for meal description. Conclusion: Using MyPlate visual for dietary tracking is a feasible approach for college students who were familiar with food recordkeeping. Grant Funding Source : PacificSource Healthcare