The “Healthy Meals” web app for the assessment of nutritional content and food allergens in restaurant meals: Development, evaluation and validation

Abstract

Objective The development and the evaluation of the Healthy Meals web app designed for professionals from different disciplines related to food, aimed to assess the nutritional and food allergen content of restaurant meals, was described. Methods App evaluation concerned: (1) usability, scored on a 7-point scale by 6 restaurateurs and 10 nutritionists through the Computer System Usability Questionnaire; (2) quality, scored on a 5-point scale by 10 nutritionists through the Mobile App Rating Scale; (3) validation, by two nutritionists through differences in entered nutrient contents. Ratings reliability was assessed by the interclass correlation coefficient. Results Users agreed with the web app usability (mean 5.6/7 points, SD 0.9), with moderate reliability among ratings (interclass correlation coefficient = 0.57; 95% CI, 0.18 to 0.82). The web app showed good objective quality (mean 4.0/5 points, SD 0.4), with excellent reliability among nutritionists (interclass correlation coefficient = 0.91; 95% CI, 0.85 to 0.96). For web app validation, no significant differences were observed between the two nutritionists’ data, with excellent reliability (interclass correlation coefficient = 0.98; 95% CI, 0.97 to 0.99). App data entry was identified as a point to improve. Conclusions The Healthy Meals web app designed for professionals related to food, such as restaurateurs, demonstrated to be usable, of good quality and valid for dishes nutritional assessment and food allergen identification. Points to improve were identified, while app effectiveness should be tested in trials.

The “Breast-4Y” web app for breast cancer prevention at young age: Development, evaluation, and validation

“…The development of Breast-4Y follows rigorous process of developing the web-app based on best-practice methodology employed by other researchers ( Guilabert et al, 2022 ; Mandracchia et al, 2022 ). Content of an app is the most important key criterion that must be considered when developing health-related apps ( Llorens-Vernet and Miró, 2020 ).…”

“…For the web-app usability and quality evaluation, a minimum of 16 end-users, was considered an appropriate sample size ( Mandracchia et al, 2022 ). For this porpoise, women were recruited by convenience.…”

Self-Management in Heart Failure Using Mhealth: A Content Validation

“…Studies advise that end users should be involved with the design of an app to better understand their needs to ensure the uptake and usability of an intervention. Additionally, methodology based on content validation testing by clinical and research experts has been used successfully to support the development of mHealth interventions [16,[42][43][44][45][46]. The concept of content validity originates in the area of instrument development.…”