Nutrikids, a Smartphone Application to Improve the Quality of Paediatrical Dietary Assessments: Feasability Study.

Collecting accurate food consumption data is challenging for nutrition practitioners. Mobile devices are interesting alternatives to traditional ways of collecting assessments by reducing burden of use. Our objective was to develop and evaluate a mobile application for food intake documentation, targeting particularly the parents of pediatric patients. NutriKids is an application designed to guide users step by step in their assessment by asking relevant questions and taking advantage of the camera function. The quality of nutritional assessment using NutriKids was evaluated through the analysis of food diaries completed during two days under real-life conditions (home use). NutriKids demonstrated to provide satisfying degree of quality in 84% of the reported items. A detailed analysis of quality components highlighted that NutriKids interface could be improved for quantitative estimation and for specific information on added fat or sugar. Besides, a feedback survey highlighted the high acceptability of the application by the participants. These findings demonstrate the potential of this guided approach application. With further development of NutriKids and controlled based assessment with larger populations, we hypothesize that our results would reach statistical significance in all aspects of nutritional assessment quality.

An Intervention by a Patient-Designed Do-It-Yourself Mobile Device App Reduces HbA1c in Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes: A Randomized Double-Crossover Study.

BACKGROUND: Prevention of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM)-related complications is dependent on metabolic control. The recommended glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) values <7.5% (58.5 mmol/mol) are met only by a minority of diabetic children and especially adolescents. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of an intervention comprising the use of Webdia, a patient-designed app for smartphones, on metabolic control of T1DM in children. METHODS: Fifty-five patients with T1DM, 10-18 years of age, were included in this single-center, randomized double-crossover study. We tested an intervention consisting of using Webdia for 3 months with monthly feedback and adaptation of the treatment. Main outcome was modification of HbA1c. Secondary outcomes were the prevalence of hypoglycemia and quality of life (QoL). RESULTS: Of the 55 included patients, 33 completed the study, 9 dropped out, and 13 were excluded due to insufficient use of the app. The app was well accepted by the users who completed the study (46.4% rated the program as good and 39.3% as excellent). The intervention led to a reduction of HbA1c by 0.33%, compared to the control group in which HbA1c rose by 0.21% (P = 0.048) in patients with HbA1c values >8.0% (63.9 mmol/mol) at inclusion, without increasing the prevalence of hypoglycemia (8.52 ± 9.45 hypoglycemic events during last 2 weeks of intervention vs. 7.62 ± 6.37 observation, P = 0.680). QoL scores were not modified. CONCLUSIONS: The intervention resulted in a significant decrease in HbA1c, without increasing the prevalence of hypoglycemia in patients with initial HbA1c >8.0% (63.9 mmol/mol).