Development and functionality of a handheld computer program to improve fruit and vegetable intake among low-income youth.
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Date
2013-03-13
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Abstract
Mobile technologies hold promise for improving diet and physical activity but little attention is given to creating programs that adolescents like and will use This study developed a personal digital assistant PDA program to promote increased intake of fruits and vegetables FV in predominately low income ethnic minority girls This study used a three phase community engaged process including i engagement of a Student Advisory Board SAB to determine comfort with PDAs ii early testing of Prototype I and rapid re design by the SAB and iii feasibility testing of Prototype II in a new sample of girls Phase 1 results showed that girls were comfortable with the PDA Testing of Prototype I in Phase 2 showed that acceptability was mixed with girls responding to 47 3 of the prompts Girls wanted more reminders accountability in monitoring FV help in meeting daily goals and free music downloads based on program use The PDA was reprogrammed and testing of Prototype II in Phase 3 demonstrated marked improvement in use 78 3 increases in FV intake 1 8 2 6 daily servings and good overall satisfaction Findings suggest that mobile technology designed with the early input of youth is a promising way to improve adolescent health behaviors
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Keywords
Young people (10-24 years), Women (only), Racial and ethnic minorities, Client, Access to information or data, Acceptability, Alignment with local norms, Addressing individual beliefs and practices, Pilot, Feasibility, Nutrition, Preventive, Health education or promotion, Appointment reminders, Disease prevention, Data collection and reporting, Internet