Leveraging AI to Transform Dietary Choices for Cardiovascular Health in Young Adults Experiencing Food Insecurity
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Not yet recruiting
- Enrollment
- 114
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- App acceptability by version assigned to participants
Study Overview
Brief Summary
The goal of this feasibility study is to determine the adherence, acceptability, and usability of the behavioral intervention of a mobile AI application and its effects on food choices and diet quality. A secondary goal is to assess whether the app's accuracy or feasibility differs by food security status. Study participants are UC Davis students aged 18-24 years. The main question it aims to answer is:
- Does the gamified app version that delivers behavioral nudges have a higher adherence and acceptability rate, and does this translate to better dietary behaviors?
Participants will use either the intervention app (dietary assessment + gamification) or the control app (non-gamified, dietary assessment only) for six weeks to record all their food intake. Diet quality will be assessed at baseline and endline, and a Likert scale acceptability questionnaire will be administered at endline.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Other
- Masking
- None
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 18 Years to 24 Years (Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •Willing to use their smartphones with app to record all foods consumed
- •UC Davis student
Exclusion Criteria
- •eating disorders
- •Participant in the validation study that tested the app's accuracy against weighed food records
Arms & Interventions
Control group- Limited app version, dietary assessment only
Participants will be randomized at enrollment to the control group, which will receive a "limited" app version that only provides a daily report of caloric and nutrient intake, without delivering behavioral nudges.
Intervention: Limited app version for dietary assessment only (Other)
Intervention group- Gamified app version; dietary assessment + gamification
Participants will be randomly assigned at enrollment to the intervention group, which will receive a gamified app that delivers behavioral nudges and provides a daily report of caloric and nutrient intake.
Intervention: A mobile application that uses AI to deliver behavioral nudges that encourage healthy food choices. (Other)
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
App acceptability by version assigned to participants
Time Frame: Measured at endline: at the end of the 6 week period
Acceptability will be assessed using a structured questionnaire based on a Likert scale from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree) administered at the end of the study period.
App's usability by version assigned to participants
Time Frame: Measured at endline: at the end of the 6 week period
Focus group discussions will be conducted with a select group of participants to assess usability (i.e. facilitators and barriers to app usage) at the end of the study period.
App adherence rates by version assigned to participants
Time Frame: Assessed at midline (3 weeks) and endline (6 weeks)
App usage adherence will be evaluated based on analytics data, with a 70% usage threshold defined for both the midline and endline assessments.
Secondary Outcomes
- Diet quality assessment by app version, measured using Healthy Eating Index scores at baseline and endline.(From enrollment till study completion at 6 weeks)
- App usability by food security status assessed using the USDA 10-item food security survey module(Food security assessed at baseline)
- App adherence rates by food security status assessed using the USDA 10-item food security survey module(Food security assessed at baseline)
- App acceptability by food security status assessed using the USDA 10-item food security survey module(Food security assessed at baseline)