Feasibility of Assessing Diet with a Mobile Food  Record for Adolescents and Young Adults with  Down Syndrome

Abstract

Technology-based methods for assessing diet in those with disability remains largely unexplored. The aim was to assess the feasibility of assessing diet with an image-based mobile food record application (mFR) in 51 adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome (PANDs). Adherence was also assessed with the instruction to include a fiducial marker object in the before and after eating images. The PANDs sample completed a four-day mFR and results were compared with a sample of young adults from the Connecting Health and Technology study (CHAT, n = 244). Compared to the CHAT sample, PANDs participants reported more fruit (2.2 ± 1.8 versus 1.0 ± 0.9 serves respectively) and vegetables (2.4 ± 1.3 versus 1.9 ± 1.0 serves, respectively), but no differences in energy-dense nutrient-poor (EDNP) foods and beverages were observed. Compared to CHAT, PANDs participants captured fewer images with the mFR (4.9 ± 2.3 versus 4.0 ± 1.5 images, respectively). Adherence to the instruction to include the fiducial marker in images was lower for PANDs compared with the CHAT sample (90.3% versus 96.5%). Due to the quality of information captured in images and the high acceptability of the fiducial marker, the mFR shows great promise as a feasible method of assessing diet in adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome.

Technology-Based Dietary Assessment in Youth with and Without Developmental Disabilities

“…Requesting the use of both methods for a total of six days within a two-week timeframe was feasible for both child and parent schedules. This expanded on what was reported by Bathgate and colleagues [ 13 ] who tested the feasibility of using the TADA mFR™ in a slightly older sample of individuals with Down syndrome. In their study, 86% (51/59) of the sample successfully recorded nutritional intake with the mFR™ for a minimum of two days [ 13 ], whereas 100% of the sample in the current study successfully collected both the image recordings for the mFR™ and the 24 HR-FT for a total of six days.…”

“…This expanded on what was reported by Bathgate and colleagues [ 13 ] who tested the feasibility of using the TADA mFR™ in a slightly older sample of individuals with Down syndrome. In their study, 86% (51/59) of the sample successfully recorded nutritional intake with the mFR™ for a minimum of two days [ 13 ], whereas 100% of the sample in the current study successfully collected both the image recordings for the mFR™ and the 24 HR-FT for a total of six days. Notable differences between these studies were that the sample in the current study was smaller, younger, and included children with spina bifida and without developmental disabilities.…”

“…Among 41 adolescents (11–15 years of age), use of the mFR™ was accepted by the majority [ 10 ]. Bathgate et al [ 13 ] examined the feasibility of using the mFR™ in 59 adolescents and young adults (12–30 years of age; M = 21.5 (SD 4.6)) with Down syndrome. In this sample, 86% of the participants successfully recorded dietary intake using the mFR™ for a minimum of two days [ 13 ].…”

Novel Online or Mobile Methods to Assess Eating Patterns

“…However, web-based 24-h recall methods such as the Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour Recall (ASA24) have been shown to be acceptable even among older adults [ 54 ], which holds promise for other technology-based assessment tools. Previous reviews have identified the need for training of participants when using many of these tools [ 14 ] and it maybe that these aspects require further development for specialist populations, although research suggests that some tools may be feasible in diverse community groups [ 55 ].…”

Mobile Ecological Momentary Diet Assessment Methods for Behavioral Research: Systematic Review (Preprint)

“…A total of 10 studies described event-contingent mEMDA methods used in nutrition-related research [52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61]. Additional approach details were extracted from other related journal articles [43,[62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73].…”