Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Nov 27, 2024
Date Accepted: Aug 19, 2025
Dietary fiber estimate of DialBetesPlus app users: secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Despite the importance of dietary fiber in regulating glycemic control, the reported intake among type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients in Japan was around 12-16 g in 2013, well below the local official recommended intake of 20 g and above. More recent data is lacking. Fiber data was collected in a recent trial of DialBetesPlus, a multimodal diabetes mHealth self-management system that supports dietary behavior change by allowing users record their meals and provides timely and detailed information on users’ nutrient intake.
Objective:
This study aimed to assess the pattern of dietary fiber intake among DialBetesPlus intervention users to provide recent data.
Methods:
Meal records were extracted using the DialBetesPlus app developer dashboard. The analysis included only data from days with complete (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) meal records. Average dietary fiber intake for each day was calculated by averaging the intake across all participants. Dietary fiber for each meal type was averaged across all days for each participant.
Results:
Out of 66 participants from the intervention group who were assigned to the DialBetesPlus intervention, 47 (71.2%) had at leasat 7 days of complete meal records and were included in the analysis. One year trend analysis revealed a slight upward trend of daily fiber intake with the rolling average consistently below 18 g. The overall mean fiber intake was 17.1 g/day. Separate analysis by meal types revealed that the highest fiber intake was during dinner (6.7 g), followed by lunch (4.8 g), breakfast (4.4 g), and snacks (1.5 g).
Conclusions:
On average, DialbetesPlus app users consumed less than the recommended intake of 20 g and above of dietary fiber per day, despite performing diet self-monitoring over 1 year. Dietary fiber intake was lowest during breakfast, while dinner exhibited the highest intake. This study highlights the need to explore alternative mHealth strategies to further enhance dietary fiber intake among T2D patients.
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