JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Mobile applications are being widely used for delivering health interventions, with their ubiquitous access and sensing capabilities. One such use is the delivery of interventions for healthy eating behavior.

Objective:

The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive view of the literature on the use of mobile interventions for eating behavior change. We synthesize the studies with such interventions and map out their input methods, interventions, and outcomes.

Methods:

We conducted a scoping literature search in PubMed/MEDLINE, ACM Digital Library, PsycINFO databases to identify relevant papers published between January 2013 and April 2018. We also hand-searched relevant themes of JMIR Journals and registered protocols. Studies were included if they provided and assessed mobile-based interventions for dietary behavior changes and/or health outcomes.

Results:

The search resulted in 30 studies that we classified by three main aspects: input methods, mobile-based interventions, and dietary behavior changes and health outcomes. First, regarding input methods, 5 studies allowed photo/ voice/ video inputs of diet information, while text input methods were used in the remaining studies. Other than diet information, the content of the input data in the mobile apps included user’s demographics, medication, health behaviors, and goals. Second, we identified six categories of intervention contents i.e., self-monitoring, feedback, gamification, goal reviews, social support, and educational information. While all 30 studies included self-monitoring as a key component of their intervention, personalized feedback was a component in 18 studies, gamification was used in 10 studies, goal reviews in 5 studies, social support in 3 studies, and educational information in 2 studies. Third, we found that 13 studies directly examined the effects of interventions on health outcomes, and 12 studies examined the effects on dietary behavior changes, whereas only 5 studies observed the effects both on dietary behavior changes and health outcomes. Regarding the type of studies, while two-thirds of the included studies conducted diverse forms of RCTs, the other 10 studies used field studies, surveys, protocols, qualitative interviews, propensity score matching method, and test and reference method.

Conclusions:

This scoping review identifies and classifies studies on mobile-based interventions for dietary behavior change as per the input methods, nature of intervention, and outcomes examined. Our findings indicate that dietary behavior changes, while playing a mediating role in improving health outcomes, have not been adequately examined in the literature. Dietary behavior change as a mechanism for the relationship between mobile-based intervention and health outcomes needs to be further investigated. Our review provides guidance for future research in this promising mHealth area.