Home-based cooking intervention with a smartphone app to improve eating behaviors in children aged 7-9 years: a feasibility study.

Haddad, Joyce; Vasiloglou, Maria F; Scheidegger-Balmer, Franziska; Fiedler, Ulrich; van der Horst, Klazine (2023). Home-based cooking intervention with a smartphone app to improve eating behaviors in children aged 7-9 years: a feasibility study. Discover social science and health, 3(1), p. 13. 10.1007/s44155-023-00042-4

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OBJECTIVE

To develop and evaluate the feasibility of a mobile application in Swiss households and assess its impact on dietary behavior and food acceptability between children who cooked with limited parental support (intervention group) with children who were not involved in cooking (control group).

METHODS

A ten-week randomized controlled trial was conducted online in 2020. Parents were given access to a mobile-app with ten recipes. Each recipe emphasized one of two generally disliked foods (Brussels sprouts or whole-meal pasta). Parents photographed and weighed the food components from the child's plate and reported whether their child liked the meal and target food. The main outcome measures were target food intake and acceptability analyzed through descriptive analysis for pre-post changes.

RESULTS

Of 24 parents who completed the baseline questionnaires, 18 parents and their children (median age: 8 years) completed the evaluation phase. Mean child baseline Brussel sprouts and whole-meal pasta intakes were 19.0 ± 24.2 g and 86.0 ± 69.7 g per meal, respectively. No meaningful differences in intake were found post-intervention or between groups. More children reported a neutral or positive liking towards the whole-meal pasta in the intervention group compared to those in the control group. No change was found for liking of Brussel sprouts.

CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE

The intervention was found to be feasible however more studies on larger samples are needed to validate feasibility. Integrating digital interventions in the home and promoting meal preparation may improve child reported acceptance of some healthy foods. Using such technology may save time for parents and engage families in consuming healthier meals.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

10 Strategic Research Centers > ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research > ARTORG Center - AI in Health and Nutrition

UniBE Contributor:

Vasiloglou, Maria

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

2731-0469

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

07 Jun 2023 09:44

Last Modified:

11 Jun 2023 02:21

Publisher DOI:

10.1007/s44155-023-00042-4

PubMed ID:

37275348

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Children Cooking Food acceptance Food intake Liking Meal preparation Vegetable intake

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/183189

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/183189

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