Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Cancer
Date Submitted: Apr 11, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 12, 2018 - Aug 14, 2018
Date Accepted: Aug 14, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
A Novel Mobile Phone App (OncoFood) to Record and Optimize the Dietary Behavior of Oncologic Patients: Pilot Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Catabolism and tumor-specific therapy lead to reduced nutrient intake and weight loss in cancer patients. Maintaining a specific individualized diet can be challenging for the patient as the nutritional counseling options are limited. Monitoring of nutrient intake and frequent feedback are, however, vital for successful nutritional therapy because they support the patient’s compliance and realization of dietary therapeutic goals.
Objective:
This study aimed at investigating the feasibility and applicability of a novel mobile phone app to assess and evaluate dietary behaviors in oncologic patients.
Methods:
To determine dietary habits and food preferences in oncologic patients, initially 1400 nutritional records were evaluated and analyzed. The results provided the basis for creating a nutritional mobile phone app. Key requirements for the app included simple handling, recording the daily intake, and a comparison of nutrient targets and current status. In total, 39 cancer patients were recruited for the study; 15 patients dropped out prior to the study. All patients received a nutritional anamnesis, nutritional analysis, and nutritional counseling. Individual energy and nutrient aims were defined. The intervention group (n=12) additionally used the app. Weight and body composition of each group were evaluated after 4 weeks.
Results:
The app group gained significantly more weight (P=.045; mean weight 1.03 kg vs –1.46 kg). Also, skeletal muscle mass showed a significant increase in the app group (P=.009; mean skeletal muscle mass 0.58 kg vs –0.61 kg) compared with the control group. There was no significant difference between groups relating to the daily protein intake (P=.06). Additionally, there was a decrease in macronutrient intake during the study period in the control group.
Conclusions:
Our study indicates that patients who track their daily dietary habits using a mobile phone app are more likely to reach their nutritional goals than the control patients. Further large-scale studies are needed to confirm these initial findings and test the applicability on a broader basis.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.