The development and evaluation of a mHealth nutrition education intervention

Abstract

An environmental scan of the app marketplace evaluated publicly available mHealth nutrition apps targeted to children and found that there were few high-quality evidence-based apps available to educate children on healthy eating. To fill this gap in the availability of mHealth child nutrition apps, an iterative multi-method approach was taken to develop a novel app, Foodbot Factory, to help children aged 9-12 improve their food literacy skills and nutrition knowledge. Foodbot Factory was created by an interdisciplinary team with each prototype being informed by data collected in 5 iterative user testing sessions. The app educates users on foods and nutrients, integrating behaviour change and gamification techniques to enhance engagement. Data from the most recent testing session demonstrates that students are able to gain knowledge about nutrition from Foodbot Factory and that the app is an engaging, usable, and acceptable intervention for children to learn about healthy eating and nutrition.