Greater consumption of vegetables and fruits is associated with reduced risks of cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, and all-cause mortality. Mobile apps present a potentially cost-effective tool for both assessing eating behaviour in the field and delivering scalable interventions to increase vegetable consumption. We appraise digital tools for eating behaviour assessment and design and evaluate digital interventions aimed at improving dietary behaviour.

 

 

 

Current Projects

Smartphone-based dietary assessment

We are conducting a systematic review on smartphone-based dietary assessment tools with a specific focus on the different features used within the tools to assess food intake. The ultimate goal of this project is to provide a comprehensive overview of available tools and common classification system. This work was funded by a fellowship from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). The protocol is published on the Open Science Framework.

 

Measurement reactivity in objective digital assessment of health behaviour

We are currently synthesising the evidence for reactivity to objective digital assessment of health behaviour (e.g., physical activity, medication adherence, smoking) in a systematic review. The review is registered on PROSPERO. This work is carried out in collaboration with the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

 

Vegethon

Vegethon is an iPhone app that aims to support increased consumption of vegetables in overweight adults. The intervention was developed in collaboration with Stanford University. It involved the development of the IDEAS framework and the evaluation of the intervention using an RCT. More…