Is it possible to use a mobile app to improve the quality of dietary choices of adolescents in Ghana and Vietnam?
| ISRCTN | ISRCTN10681553 |
|---|---|
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN10681553 |
- Submission date
- 12/11/2021
- Registration date
- 12/11/2021
- Last edited
- 31/05/2024
- Recruitment status
- No longer recruiting
- Overall study status
- Completed
- Condition category
- Nutritional, Metabolic, Endocrine
Plain English summary of protocol
Background and study aims
Unhealthy diets are a critical global concern while dietary measure methods are time-consuming and expensive. There is limited evidence that phone-based interventions can improve nutrition data collection as well as dietary quality, especially for adolescents in developing countries. We developed an artificial-intelligence based phone application called Food Recognition Assistance and Nudging Insights (FRANI) to tackle these problems. The objectives of this study are to measure the acceptability, adherence, and likeability of FRANI, as well as its impact in the food choices of adolescents in Accra, Ghana and Thai Nguyen, Vietnam.
Who can participate?
Adolescent girls aged 12-18 years
What does the study involve?
In each setting, we randomly allocate participants into two groups: The intervention group with the full version of FRANI including the gamified nudges to encourage healthier food choices. The control group will receive FRANI without the gamified nudges. Both groups will have their food choices tracked for four weeks. The control groups will then receive the full version of FRANI and both groups were tracked for a further 2 weeks to assess acceptability, adherence, and likeability.
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
Evidence generated from this study will assess the potential for new technology to improve scalable data collection in nutrition, and healthier food choices for a population at risk of malnutrition.
No risks.
Where is the study run from?
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) (USA)
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
January 2021 to January 2022
Who is funding the study?
Fondation Botnar (Switzerland)
Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR) program on Agriculture, Nutrition and Health (France)
Who is the main contact?
Dr Aulo Gelli, a.gelli@cgiar.org
Contact information
Scientific
1201 Eye Street NW
Washington, DC
20005-3915
United States of America
 ORCID ID |
0000-0003-4977-2549 |
|---|---|
| Phone | +1 202 862-5611 |
| a.gelli@cgiar.org |
Study information
| Study design | Randomized controlled pilot study |
|---|---|
| Primary study design | Interventional |
| Secondary study design | Pilot study |
| Study setting(s) | Home |
| Study type | Other |
| Participant information sheet | Not available in web format please use contact details to request participant information sheet |
| Scientific title | Food Recognition Assistance and Nudging Insights. Measuring measuring the feasibility (acceptability, adherence, and likeability) of a mobile app designed to improve the quality of dietary choices of adolescents in Ghana and Vietnam: A pilot study |
| Study acronym | FRANI |
| Study objectives | The FRANI mobile app is designed to improve diets by increasing the consumption of healthy foods and beverages, whilst crowding out the consumption of energy-dense foods. |
| Ethics approval(s) | Approved 08/12/2020, Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the IFPRI (2033 K Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20006-1002, USA; no telephone number provided; IFPRI-IRB@cgiar.org), ref: #00007490 |
| Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied | Low quality diets in adolescents |
| Intervention | The intervention group with the full version of FRANI including the gamified nudges to encourage healthier food choices. The control group will receive FRANI without the gamified nudges. Participants in both groups will have their food choices tracked for four weeks. The control groups will then receive the full version of FRANI and both groups will be tracked for a further 2 weeks to assess acceptability, adherence, and likeability. Total data collection period will be 6 weeks. The intervention group will be able to take pictures of their meals, set dietary goals, and will receive personalized medals and badges according to the dietary quality of the foods they ate. They will be able to see the scores and statistics about the quality of their diet. They will receive a daily report summarizing everything they ate and notifications reminding them to take pictures. In contrast, the participants in the control group will have access to a mobile phone with a limited version of FRANI, without possibility of setting dietary goals, nor a home screen, daily reports, scores and statistics. They also will not receive medals and badges. Both groups will see the same notifications, except daily report reminders for the control group. A computer-generated sequence will be used to randomly allocated participants to the intervention and control groups at a 1:1 ratio for each country separately. |
| Intervention type | Behavioural |
| Primary outcome measure | The feasibility of the FRANI was assessed by measuring outcomes related to adherence, acceptability. Adherence in this pilot study is defined as the number of days the participants completed dietary recalls on the FRANI divided by the total number of days of the pilot test. Participants will be considered adherent if this is equal to 70% or higher, starting to count from the first and ending on the last day of the pilot. Acceptability summarizes likeability, satisfaction, intent to use, and intent to continue using the FRANI, while usability summarizes what affects the use of the FRANI. Acceptability and usability are measured according to answers from structured questionnaires. If participants grade the acceptability or usability of the FRANI as 30 or more points in their respective structured questionnaires, the app will be considered accepted or usable. |
| Secondary outcome measures | Measured using data captured by FRANI over the entire duration of the pilot: 1. Percentage of total meals recorded in FRANI 2. Quality of dietary choices measured using the Individual Dietary Diversity Score 3. Quality of dietary choices measured using the EAT-Lancet Diet Score |
| Overall study start date | 01/01/2021 |
| Completion date | 30/01/2022 |
Eligibility
| Participant type(s) | Healthy volunteer |
|---|---|
| Age group | Child |
| Lower age limit | 12 Years |
| Upper age limit | 18 Years |
| Sex | Female |
| Target number of participants | 36 per country |
| Key inclusion criteria | Adolescent girls aged 12-18 years in the targeted community |
| Key exclusion criteria | Participant not providing assent or parent not providing consent. |
| Date of first enrolment | 01/07/2021 |
| Date of final enrolment | 30/12/2021 |
Locations
Countries of recruitment
- Ghana
- Viet Nam
Study participating centres
Accra
LG 581
Ghana
Thanh pho Thai Nguyen
Thai Nguyen
479999
Viet Nam
Sponsor information
Charity
St. Alban-Vorstadt 56
Basel
4052
Switzerland
| Phone | +41 61 201 04 74 |
|---|---|
| info@fondationbotnar.org | |
| Website | https://www.fondationbotnar.org/ |
"ROR" |
https://ror.org/033ztm745 |
Funders
Funder type
Research organisation
Private sector organisation / Other non-profit organizations
- Alternative name(s)
- CGIAR
- Location
- France
Results and Publications
| Intention to publish date | 01/06/2022 |
|---|---|
| Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share | Yes |
| IPD sharing plan summary | Stored in publicly available repository |
| Publication and dissemination plan | Planned publication in high-impact peer reviewed journals |
| IPD sharing plan | The data will be shared on the IFPRI dataverse 1 year after the completion of the study |
Study outputs
| Output type | Details | Date created | Date added | Peer reviewed? | Patient-facing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protocol article | 06/12/2022 | 28/12/2022 | Yes | No | |
| Results article | 13/12/2023 | 31/05/2024 | Yes | No |
Editorial Notes
31/05/2024: Publication reference added.
28/12/2022: Publication reference added.
12/11/2021: Trial's existence confirmed by Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the IFPRI
