Background: The Change4Life Food Scanner app displays nutritional information using visual images alongside traffic light labels. The app's effectiveness for improving dietary choices is unknown. This study investigated the feasibility and acceptability of evaluating the effectiveness of the Food Scanner app in reducing children's sugar intake in the UK.
Methods: Adopting a non-blinded parallel trial design, we randomly assigned (1:1) 126 parents of children aged 4-11 years through block randomisation sequences into a 3-month intervention consisting of exposure to the Change4Life Food Scanner app (version 1.6; ie, the intervention group [n=62]) or no intervention (ie, the control group [n=64]). Participants completed baseline and 3-month post-intervention measures of dietary intake (3-day food diary) and trial acceptability measures. The intervention group completed fortnightly app engagement measures. Ethical approval was obtained by the University of Sheffield Research Ethics Committee (026380).
Findings: 64 (51%) of 126 participants completed the study (29 [45%] in the intervention group and 35 [55%] in the control group). 51 (80%) of 64 reported that the study was easy to complete and 62 (97%) found receiving task completion reminders helpful. App engagement decreased throughout the study (eg, mean engagement time was 18·01 min [SD 27·15] in week 2, and 6·76 min [11·56] in week 12). 18 (64%) of 28 participants reported high overall app acceptability; however, seven (25%) did not find the app helpful. 24 (86%) of 28 reported high acceptability for the app's use of sugar cube images, which were rated as easy to understand and useful to supplement front of package nutritional labels. Six (21%) of 28 did not find sugar cube images helpful and 20 (71%) had low acceptability of the app aiding food purchasing decisions. 45 (73%) of 62 were willing to continue with the study for a 12-month trial.
Interpretation: Despite a high attrition rate, study procedures were considered acceptable by most participants. Acceptability of the Food Scanner app was varied, and participants did not find the app helpful for food purchases. Analysis of preliminary efficacy of the intervention is ongoing, which will inform design parameters for a future large-scale trial.
Funding: Wellcome Trust.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02223-1 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Non-Destructive Monitoring of External Quality of Date Palm Fruit ( L.) During Frozen Storage Using Digital Camera and Flatbed Scanner.
Sensors (Basel)
November 2024
Fruit and Vegetable Storage and Processing Department, The National Institute of Horticultural Research, Konstytucji 3 Maja 1/3, 96-100 Skierniewice, Poland.
The emergence of new technologies focusing on "computer vision" has contributed significantly to the assessment of fruit quality. In this study, an innovative approach based on image analysis was used to assess the external quality of fresh and frozen 'Mejhoul' and 'Boufeggous' date palm cultivars stored for 6 months at -10 °C and -18 °C. Their quality was evaluated, in a non-destructive manner, based on texture features extracted from images acquired using a digital camera and flatbed scanner.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF[Christmas article: Point-of-care test of optimal meat structure in Danish Pork Roasts - a prospective observational study].
Ugeskr Laeger
December 2024
Anæstesi- og Intensivafdeling, Aalborg Universitetshospital.
Introduction: Pork Roast is an important part of the Danish holidays. The precise cooking of the pork roast is a controversial debate, which has been going on for decades. Newer techniques such as sous vide have been gaining popularity, but the optimal pork roast is yet to be determined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA dataset of µCT images of small samples of constructed Technosol from bioretention cells.
Data Brief
December 2024
Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Prague 166 29, Czech Republic.
The dataset represents micro computed tomography (µCT) images of undisturbed samples of constructed Technosol, obtained by sampling from the top layer of the biofilter in two bioretention cells. A bioretention cell is a stormwater management system designed to collect and temporarily retain stormwater runoff and treat it by filtering it through a soil media called a biofilter. Soil samples were collected at 7, 12, 18, 23, and 31 months after the establishment of bioretention cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutomatic detection of multi-antibiotic residues simultaneously in aquatic products by visual protein microarray chips.
Food Chem
February 2025
State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address:
A 96-well microplate-based protein microarray chip which can simultaneously detect three different families of antibiotics using a multiplexed approach has been developed for the first time. All steps in the microarray chip can be completed through an automated biochip analyzer, enabling high throughput analysis of 96 samples within 60 min according to the set program. The microarray chip can be visually evaluated by the color depth of array points, and can also be quantified through a scanner.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutomation for lateral flow rapid tests: Protocol for an open-source fluid handler and applications to dengue and African swine fever tests.
PLOS Glob Public Health
November 2024
Histopathology Core, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, California, United States of America.
Lateral flow rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs, RTs) are cost-effective with low infrastructure requirements for limited-resource settings, and in any setting can represent a bridge between early disease monitoring at outbreak onset and fully-scaled molecular testing for human or animal diseases. However, the potential of RTs to handle higher throughput testing is hampered by the need for manual processing. Here we review dengue virus and African swine fever virus rapid tests, and present a novel protocol that employs an open-source fluid handler to automate the execution of up to 42 RTs per run.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!