Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Date of Award

Fall 8-2019

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Advisor(s)

Stefan A. Czerwinski, Ba, Ma, Phd

Second Advisor

Audrey C. Choh, Bsc, Msc, Phd

Third Advisor

Miryoung Lee, Bs, Ms, Mph, Phd

Abstract

As chronic conditions associated with the high prevalence of obesity/overweight in the United States continue to rise, research focusing on nutrition has grown in recent years. The gold standard for collecting detailed nutritional information on individuals is food journals, mostly via pen and paper. Alternatively, smartphone food journal applications have become more popular and widely accessible in recent years. These applications allow the user to quickly make meal entries, often taking advantage of the application’s food and servings database.

This study compared the results of the third iteration of the Diet History Questionnaire (DHQ III) with a dietary journal data collected from participants using the FatSecret and MyFitnessPal mobile applications. Estimated calories, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, sodium, and sugars consumed on average daily were first calculated from data derived via the two mobile applications and the DHQ III. Intraclass correlations (ICC) were used to determine the level of association between data derived from the two applications and DHQ III. In addition, the two applications were compared to determine similarities between queried meals.

Pearson correlations between 0.65 - 0.80 and ICC between 0.68 – 0.80 were found between the nutritional components derived from the mobile applications and the DHQ III, although only eight participants completed the entirety of the study. Significant variability was found between the nutritional data of both food journal applications. This along with numerous obstacles regarding the application technologies, such as lack of Application Processing Interfaces (APIs) per food journal application, must be considered before considering applying them to a standardized medical workflow.

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