Chung LMY, Fong SSM, Law QPS. Younger Adults Are More Likely to Increase Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Decrease Sugar Intake with the Application of Dietary Monitoring.
Nutrients 2021;
13:nu13020333. [PMID:
33498678 PMCID:
PMC7911637 DOI:
10.3390/nu13020333]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2020] [Revised: 01/18/2021] [Accepted: 01/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Establishing healthy eating habits is considered to be a sustainable strategy for health maintenance, and mobile applications (apps) are expected to be highly effective among the young-aged population for healthy eating promotion. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a dietary monitoring app on younger adults’ nutrition knowledge and their dietary habits. A controlled-experimental study was performed with one experimental group having a three-hour nutrition seminar and 12 weeks of dietary monitoring with the app, and one control group receiving a three-hour nutrition seminar. Behavioral feedback delivered by the app was evaluated in facilitating the transfer of nutritional knowledge to nutrition behavior. A total of 305 younger adults aged from 19 to 31 were recruited. Baseline and post-intervention nutrition knowledge and dietary behavior were collected. All mean scores of post-GNKQ-R increased from baseline for both the control and the experimental groups. The mean differences of sugar intake, dietary fiber intake, and vitamin C intake for the experimental group were significantly more than those for the control group (all p < 0.001). In addition, the experimental group increased fruit and vegetable consumption significantly more than the control group (all p < 0.001). For those younger adults with a relatively large body size, they were more likely to increase fruit consumption with the application of dietary monitoring.
Collapse