JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Health problems among youths in developed countries have faced with a contradiction of obesity and an excessive desire for underweight. Acquiring a better health attitude for college students is essential since their future lifestyles are established in this period. The effect of online interaction on social media with creating dietary diaries through a smartphone application to improve college students’ eating habits has not been examined yet.

Objective:

To understand potential effectiveness of social media, this research explored how interaction on social media with creating dietary diaries on the smartphone application encourage college students to raise their awareness of their eating habits.

Methods:

Forty-two college students created dietary diaries online through a smartphone application and followed/interacted with each other using social media for seven consecutive days in September to November 2017. Online surveys were administered at baseline, immediately after creating the dietary diaries, and at one-month follow-up; participants rated their degree of interest and self-evaluations of eating habits using Seven-point scales, and multiple choice of what they thought about when they chose meal/drink from ten topics. Free descriptions about their overall experience through the project were also collected in the follow-up survey.

Results:

Data from Thirty-eight participants who completed all the process were analyzed. Over time, the points for degree of interest in eating increased at P<.001 while their self-evaluation about their eating habits decreased at P<.001; these significant differences remained after one month (P=.002, 0.04). A weak-negative correlation was observed at P=.009 between points of interest level and self-evaluation of their eating. Participants with lower points of interest level at baseline tended to increase their interest level more than average at P<.001. Participants became to think about their diet from versatile viewpoints when they choose what to eat/drink, particularly about well-balanced diets and ingredients variety. Participants evaluated their experiment as interesting/fun and reported familiarity with using smartphone applications and social media as the method to look back their eating. Participants motivated each other in the communication on social media, in addition to monitoring their eating habits through online dietary diaries. Some participants experienced difficulty, especially when they were busy or faced a lack of internet access or smartphone battery life.

Conclusions:

Trough interactions on social media, college students experienced encouragement and developed an interest in their eating habits. This methodology, which embraces peer-education and peer-support with social media holds promise for the future of youth health promotion. More examination will be needed to explore how to sustain their awareness.