Content Analysis of Diet-Related Mobile Apps: A Self-Regulation Perspective

Abstract

Diet-related mobile apps hold promise in helping individuals self-regulate their eating behaviors. Nevertheless, little is known about the extent to which diet-related mobile apps incorporate the established behavior change theories and evidence-based practices that promote dietary self-regulation. Guided by the self-regulation aspect of Bandura's social cognitive theory and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this study conducts a content analysis of diet-related mobile apps for iPhone (N = 400). In terms of the adherence to the self-regulation aspect of the social cognitive theory, results show that although 72.5% of the apps incorporate at least one theoretical construct, few apps tap all three processes of self-regulation (i.e., self-observation/monitoring, judgment process, and self-reaction). Additionally, outcome expectation is manifested in a majority of the diet-related apps. In terms of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010, while the diet-related apps equally emphasize setting goals for calorie intake or nutrient consumption, more apps feature nutrient tracking than calorie tracking. Implications and limitations are discussed.

The use of smartphone health apps and other mobile health (mHealth) technologies in dietetic practice: a three country study

“…Although the provision of information may increase knowledge of health behaviours, education alone is insufficient to promote behavioural self‐management without more theory‐driven behaviour change techniques . The only behaviour change strategy present in many health apps is self‐monitoring . Yet, it is recognised that self‐monitoring is more effective at changing healthy eating and physical activity behaviours when accompanied by at least one additional technique derived from control theory .…”

“…The only behaviour change strategy present in many health apps is self-monitoring (24,35,(41)(42)(43)(44)(45) . Yet, it is recognised that self-monitoring is more effective at changing healthy eating and physical activity behaviours when accompanied by at least one additional technique derived from control theory (46) .…”

Can existing mobile apps support healthier food purchasing behaviour? Content analysis of nutrition content, behaviour change theory and user quality integration

“…Only a limited number of the relevant BCT were integrated into any of the mobile apps with a particular focus on influencing the individual’s response or the performance cue; this also reflects findings from elsewhere ( 68 , 70 ) . Such approaches may not be wholly effective for all users and techniques addressing behavioural reinforcement may also be appropriate ( 70 ) . Similar to other reviews, the extent of integration varied from two to fourteen techniques ( 43 , 70 , 71 ) .…”

Characteristics of Smartphone Applications for Nutrition Improvement in Community Settings: A Scoping Review

“…This may partially be a feature of study reporting, but for the purposes of this review our classification of strategic approach and theory use was broad and inclusive, as can be seen in the results. Commercial application content reviews focusing on incorporation of behavior change techniques offer many useful suggestions for mapping features to behavior change theories for future application developers (21,22,25,(27)(28)(29). Additionally, our map of the approaches that have been used may serve as a starting point, and the feature domains reported in the findings generally correspond to different behavior change support strategies common to many classic behavioral change models (21,28), thus inclusion of a feature from each domain could be a useful initial approach.…”

“…Application content reviews examine features, content, and incorporation of behavioral change theory in commercially available applications but not applications that have been developed or used specifically for nutrition improvement programs (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29). As such, a map of application characteristics and consumer evaluation of them, particularly incorporating a comparison of different population groups, will be an informative guide for future application development projects and practitioners seeking to choose appropriate applications for use in community settings.…”