SAlBi educa (Tailored Nutrition App for Improving Dietary Habits): Initial Evaluation of Usability

Abstract

In recent years, the use of applications to improve dietary habits has increased. Although numerous nutrition apps are available on the market, only few have been developed by health and nutrition professionals based on scientific evidence and subsequently tested to prove their usability. The main objective of this study was to design, develop, and evaluate the usability of a tailored nutrition application to be used to promote healthy eating habits. In order to decide app design and content, three focus groups took place with fifteen professionals from primary healthcare, nutrition, and food science and computer science, as well as expert users. For the general and feedback message design, a reference model based on the scientific literature was developed. To address the multi-perspective approach of users' and external healthcare professionals' feedback, a one-day pilot testing with potential users and healthcare professionals was conducted with four focus groups. To evaluate the relevance and potential usability of the app a 1-month pilot test was conducted in a real-life environment. A total of 42 volunteers participated in the one-day pilot testing, and 39 potential users participated in the 1-month pilot test. The SAlBi educa app developed includes an online dietary record, a self-monitoring tool to evaluate dietary patterns, general and feedback messages, and examples of traditional Mediterranean recipes. The usability study showed that volunteers think that SAlBi educa is pleasant (59%) and easy to learn to use (94%). Over 84% of the volunteers declared that the nutritional messages were clear and useful. Volunteers stated that general and tailored recommendations, as well as self-monitoring, were SAlBi educa's most motivating and useful features. SAlBi educa is an innovative, user-friendly nutritional education tool with the potential to engage and help individuals to follow dietary habits based on the Mediterranean model.

Short-Term Pilot Study to Evaluate the Impact of Salbi Educa Nutrition App in Macronutrients Intake and Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet: Randomized Controlled Trial

“…SAlbi educa is a nutrition app, which provides tailored recommendations in order to balance the user’s diet. SAlbi educa’s usability in a real environment has been proven [ 25 ]. Additionally, the present study shows that SAlBi educa is a helpful tool for dietary counseling in primary healthcare for improving dietary habits.…”

“…The present studies have shown the effectiveness of SalBi educa over one- and three-month periods. In a previous study, we evaluated adherence to SalBi educa for a one-month period, being 81.3% (participants who were tracking at least 3 days/week with two main eating occasions) [ 25 ]. Several studies have shown that nutrition apps present similar adherence at 6 and 11 weeks [ 64 , 65 ].…”

“…SAlBi educa was developed by healthcare professionals from Seville Clinical Units (Family Doctors, Nurses, and Public Health and Health Promotion Technicians), professors and lecturers from the Nutrition and Food Sciences Department at the University of Seville, and potential users. The app was then tested for usability [ 25 ]. SAlBi educa offers personalized dietary counseling based on the Mediterranean diet model, estimating users’ energy requirements based on his/her data (sex, age, weight, height, and physical activity level).…”

“…mHealth use in primary healthcare dietary counseling appears to be a promising tool for implementing the transition towards healthier eating behavior. SAlBi educa is a pilot project comprising the design, development, and evaluation of a tailored nutrition application [ 25 ]. It aims to implement a nutritional education app in primary care nutrition counseling for the first time in the Andalusian public health system (South of Spain).…”

“…The SAlBi educa app offers personalized dietary counseling based on the Mediterranean diet model, since this model is one of the references for a healthy diet [ 27 , 28 , 29 ]. SAlBi educa was developed by health and nutrition professionals and is based on scientific evidence and nutritional recommendations from the WHO and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and its usability was tested [ 25 ]. The app includes dietary self-monitoring (energy, total fat, carbohydrate, free sugar, proteins, and fiber), general and tailored feedback messages, and also suggests recipes and dishes typical of the Mediterranean model in order to achieve a balanced diet.…”