Technology-embedded health education on nutrition for middle-aged and older adults living in the community

Abstract

Mobile technology provides young adults important support for self-directed learning, but whether there is related support for older adults is not clear. This study aims to determine whether 1) nutrition education combined with mobile technology-supported teaching improves knowledge of and self-efficacy for a healthy diet; 2) if adults who reported reviewing the electronic course material or searching health information online, showed significantly greater progress in knowledge of and self-efficacy for a healthy diet than did those who did not adopt the electronic support. A total of 35 middle-aged and older adults were recruited from the community. Enrollees who were unable to read, who participated in the course fewer than five times, who did not take the post-test, or who did not return complete questionnaires at the pre-test were excluded. Overall, 21 participants were finally analyzed, and 14 participated in the qualitative investigation. The study interventions included three traditional nutrition lectures and three touch-screen tablet computer lessons to access the Internet and nutrition applications. Structured and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data and record participants' Internet use conditions at home. Participants' nutrition knowledge significantly improved (meanpost-pre = 1.19, p = 0.001) and their self-efficacy about a healthy diet showed marginal improvement (meanpost-pre = 0.22, p = 0.07). Nutrition knowledge was positively correlated with their intensity of surfing the Internet ( r = 0.46, p < 0.05), or reviewing the electronic course material ( r = 0.48, p < 0.05) but not correlated with reviewing paper course material ( r = 0.19, p = 0.09). Qualitative results showed that participants reported feeling freshness, joyfulness, and great achievement because of the combined course material. Technology-supported learning combined with traditional health education might provide great opportunities for positive behavioral change, even in older adults without any previous Internet experience.

Associations between socio-demographics, nutrition knowledge, nutrition competencies and attitudes in community-dwelling healthy older adults in Singapore: Findings from the SHIELD study

“…This could be due to the higher education levels and socioeconomic status seen in our participants compared to Singapore's general population aged 65 years and above. This nding opens up the possibility of internet-based nutrition educational and lifestyle programs, which has shown great potential in increasing access to nutrition information, and in improving older adults nutrition knowledge [53,54]. Additionally these programs are capable of reaching a wide population of individuals at low costs [55].…”

Education and Diet in the Scientific Literature: A Study of the Productive, Structural, and Dynamic Development in Web of Science

“…Traditional practices to boost eating habits among people have shown little importance in improving dietary patterns [20]. Therefore, nutritional training activities based on electronic resources such as mobile devices are increasing, proving to be effective for the implementation of a dietary follow-up [21]. In addition, innovative dietary education programs are being carried out through educational technology based on e-learning to reduce the barriers that some people may have to access a nutritional training program [22].…”

Relationship Between Internet Behaviors and Social Engagement in Middle-Aged and Older Adults in Taiwan

“…The past decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of older adults learning and using new technologies [1] and consider that advanced technologies can enhance their quality of life [2]. There is an increasing trend of using the Internet to promote the health of older adults [3,4]. Existing studies also indicate perspectives from older adults regarding their eagerness to catch up with the new technology [5].…”