Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Feb 14, 2023
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 21, 2023 - Mar 18, 2023
Date Accepted: Dec 20, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Mobile Technologies for Supporting Food Purchase Choices: A Scoping Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Diet and nutrition choices play an important role in individual health and well-being, as well as for environmental sustainability. The point of purchase presents a decisive moment that determines following consumption and can be influenced by many contextual factors. It therefore offers opportunities for digital technologies to support individuals with their intentions or behavior change goals.
Objective:
Since work on mobile technologies to support food purchase choices (MTFPC) has been conducted from the perspective of different research fields, we present a scoping review of research works in this area in order to identify commonly applied technical characteristics and consider fit with theoretical frameworks for behavior change and technology adoption.
Methods:
We conducted a systematic literature search in IEEE, Scopus, and Science Direct databases for primary works discussing MTPFC designs. A content analysis of included works is performed to code a range of characteristics, including: the aim of the application, the functions and functional components, incorporated behavior change techniques (BCTs), and others.
Results:
After exclusion 77 articles remained for coding. Thirteen different core functions and 49 different functionalities were identified. Most technologies concerned smart-phone applications (61), of which most support the review of products in the store (31). Other device types (e.g., smart carts (9)) and core functions (e.g., digital menu (6)) were identified substantially less frequent. On average, 1.36 BCTs were identified per technology. Less than 10% framed their design in behavioral theory. We identified more BCTs in designs framed in behavioral theory (U(68,9) = 186.5, p=0.04). A common adoption challenge was resistance against product scanning.
Conclusions:
Applications of MTPFC encompass a wide variety of functions and functionalities. However, design choices are seldomly framed in behavior theory, which complicates coherent research and development across projects in the area. Factors important for technology adoption appear frequently overlooked, which may hamper successful real-life implementation of technologies.
Citation
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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.