Unique Features of a Web-Based Nutrition Website for Childhood Cancer Populations: Descriptive Study

Abstract

Background Children with cancer experience a myriad of nutritional challenges that impact their nutrition status during treatment and into survivorship. Growing evidence suggests that weight at diagnosis impacts cancer outcomes, but provider guidance on nutrition and diet during treatment varies. Nutrition literacy and culinary resources may help mitigate some common nutritional problems; however, many patients may face barriers to accessing in-person classes. Along with dietitian-led clinical interventions, web-based resources such as the newly updated electronic cookbook (e-cookbook) created by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, @TheTable, may facilitate access to nutrition and culinary education during treatment and into survivorship. Objective We sought to define and describe the features and content of the @TheTable e-cookbook and compare it with analogous resources for a lay audience of patients with childhood cancer and childhood cancer survivors as well as their families. Methods We evaluated freely available web-based resources via a popular online search engine (ie, Google). These searches yielded three web-based resources analogous to @TheTable: the American Institute for Cancer Research’s Healthy Recipes, The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio’s Culinary Health Education for Families Recipe for Life, and Ann Ogden Gaffney and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s Cook for Your Life. These sites were analyzed for the following: number of recipes, search functionality, child or family focus, cancer focus, specific dietary guidance, videos or other media, and miscellaneous unique features. Results Cook for Your Life and Culinary Health Education for Families Recipe for Life were the most comparable to @TheTable with respect to cancer focus and family focus, respectively. Healthy Recipes is the least user-friendly, with few search options and no didactic videos. Conclusions The @TheTable e-cookbook is unique in its offering of child- and family-focused content centered on the cancer and survivorship experience.

Feasible diet and circadian interventions reduce in vivo progression of FLT3‐ITD‐positive acute myeloid leukemia

“…Overall, the participants reported positive feedback for low‐sucrose and low‐fat meal options and patients preliminarily indicated willingness to maintain a diet intervention during treatment composed of recipes that were low sucrose or low fat (Figure 2D). All recipes are freely available on a website created by our group, 12 and both participants and their parents were provided print materials directing them to the e‐cookbook site.…”

“…After obtaining informed consent and assent, 12 (nine of which were diagnosed with standard risk B-ALL) study participants were recruited in Houston, Texas from the MD Anderson Cancer Center Children's Cancer Hospital in accordance with approval from the Institutional Review Board of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (2010-0654). Eligibility criteria included children being school aged (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17), pediatric cancer patients who were currently undergoing treatment, and ability to read and speak English. Each participant attended in-person sessions wherein they tasted five low-fat prepared foods and five low-sucrose prepared foods prepared by the Bionutrition Research Core at MD Anderson Cancer Center using recipes from the At The Table online cookbook.…”

Nutritional Status at Diagnosis as Predictor of Survival from Childhood Cancer: A Review of the Literature

“…Currently, several approaches are being implemented targeting the family-based nutrition and cooking education of parents and guardians of children with cancer [ 71 , 72 , 73 ]. Among such interventions, web-based dietary and cooking intervention approaches have gained great attention among parents and young patients [ 74 , 75 , 76 ]. Preliminary results have shown that early interventions resulted in better nutrition practices, i.e., lower sodium consumption [ 73 ].…”

Characteristics of Users of the Cook for Your Life Website, an Online Nutrition Resource for Persons Affected by Cancer: Descriptive Study

“…In addition to their development process, user statistics for the year after their launch (ie, May 2014-May 2015), including total page views, total visitors, and region of user’s residence, were reported; however, details such as demographic, health behavior, and clinical characteristics about their users were not described [ 12 ]. A similar project of developing a web-based cookbook for pediatric patients with cancer, undertaken by the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, has also been described [ 25 ] and compared to two other science-based cancer and nutrition websites, including Cook for Your Life [ 26 ]; however, information about the characteristics of their users was not provided.…”