The Development of VegEze: Smartphone App to Increase Vegetable Consumption in Australian Adults

Overview

Journal JMIR Form Res

Publisher JMIR Publications

Specialty Biomedical Engineering

Date 2019 Mar 28

PMID 30916653

Citations 9

Authors

Gilly A Hendrie

Genevieve James-Martin

Gemma Williams

Emily Brindal

Ben Whyte

Anna Crook

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Poor-quality dietary patterns are often characterized by inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables. Changing dietary behavior is difficult, and although it is often clear what needs to change, how to enact change is more difficult. Smartphones have characteristics that may support the complexity of changing dietary behavior.

Objective: This paper describes the iterative process of developing a theory-based smartphone app called VegEze that aimed to increase vegetable consumption.

Methods: To upscale, reach target users, and create a user-friendly end product, a collaborative research-industry partnership was formed to build the app over a 20-week period. The Integrate, Design, Assess, and Share framework was used as a scientific basis to guide the development. The behavior change wheel was also used as a theoretical grounding in combination with other theory-based strategies, such as self-monitoring, social comparison, and gamification-which have all been shown to be successful in dietary change or digital health interventions. We conducted 1 consumer survey (N=1068), 1 usability testing session (N=11), and a pilot effectiveness and usability trial (N=283) to inform the design of the app.

Results: The target behavior for the app was defined as having 3 different types of vegetables at dinner. The perceived achievability of this target behavior was high; 93% of respondents (993/1068 users) felt they were likely or very likely to be able to regularly achieve the behavior. App features that users wanted included the following: recipes and meal ideas (876/1068, 82% of users), functionality to track their intake (662/1068, 62%), and information on how to prepare vegetables (545/1068, 51%). On the basis of importance of self-monitoring as a behavior change technique (BCT) and its rating by users, the vegetable tracker was a core feature of the app and was designed to be quick and simple to use. Daily feedback messages for logging intake and communicating progress were designed to be engaging and fun, using friendly, positive language and emoji icons. Daily and weekly feedback on vegetable consumption was designed to be simple, informative, and reinforce monitoring. A creative team was engaged to assist in the branding of the app to ensure it had an identity that reflected the fun and simple nature of the underlying behavior. The app included 16 BCTs, most of which were from the goals and planning subsection of the BCT taxonomy.

Conclusions: Combining a theoretical framework with an industry perspective and input resulted in an app that was developed in a timely manner while retaining its evidence-base. VegEze is an iOS app currently available in the App Store, and the overall impact of the VegEze app will be evaluated in an uncontrolled, quantitative study.

Trial Registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12618000481279; http://www.anzctr.org.au/TrialSearch.aspx?searchTxt=ACTRN12618000481279 (Archived by WebCite: at http://www.webcitation.org/769oG9EaA).

Citing Articles

Bridging Implementation Science and Human-Centered Design: Developing Tailored Interventions for Healthier Eating in Restaurants.

Fuster M, Hipol S, Huang T, Colon-Ramos U, Conaboy C, Abreu R Glob Implement Res Appl. 2024; 4(4):446-458.

PMID: 39568618 PMC: 11573827. DOI: 10.1007/s43477-024-00133-7.

Determining the feasibility of a codesigned and personalised intervention (Veg4Me) to improve vegetable intake in young adults living in rural Australian communities: protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Livingstone K, Rawstorn J, Partridge S, Zhang Y, O E, Godrich S BMJ Open. 2024; 14(1):e078001.

PMID: 38216197 PMC: 10806619. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-078001.

A Novel Mobile App for Personalized Dietary Advice Leveraging Persuasive Technology, Computer Vision, and Cloud Computing: Development and Usability Study.

Guan V, Zhou C, Wan H, Zhou R, Zhang D, Zhang S JMIR Form Res. 2023; 7:e46839.

PMID: 37549000 PMC: 10442736. DOI: 10.2196/46839.

Conceptual Ambiguity Surrounding Gamification and Serious Games in Health Care: Literature Review and Development of Game-Based Intervention Reporting Guidelines (GAMING).

Warsinsky S, Schmidt-Kraepelin M, Rank S, Thiebes S, Sunyaev A J Med Internet Res. 2021; 23(9):e30390.

PMID: 34505840 PMC: 8463952. DOI: 10.2196/30390.

Correlations between Self-Reported Cooking Confidence and Creativity and Use of Convenience Cooking Products in an Australian Cohort.

Brasington N, Jones P, Bucher T, Beckett E Nutrients. 2021; 13(5).

PMID: 34069649 PMC: 8160973. DOI: 10.3390/nu13051724.

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