Dr CHUNG Ming Yan Louisa
Application of Dietary Monitoring Apps in Enhancing Eating Behaviour of Balanced Diet among Younger Adults
[Health and Medical Research Fund - Health Care and Promotion Scheme 2018, Food and Health Bureau, HKSAR]
Abstract:
A balanced diet is considered important in the health maintenance and the prevention of chronic illnesses. Over the past decade, promotion in healthy eating becomes increasingly important in preventing the diet-related chronic diseases and in combating the health problems resulted from imbalanced energy input and output. The Government also established a committee to devise a strategic plan in reducing dietary salt and sugar intake in Hong Kong population. The work of the committee included public education for promoting awareness in healthy eating and transferring knowledge in balanced diet. Therefore, developing strategies in nutrition education to change people’s eating behaviour requires innovation to cope with the needs. The advancement in technology expedited health communication in a timely, interactive and interdisciplinary approach. Healthy eating promotion conducted with technology application facilitates users to acquire information flexibly in time, pace and place. Technology application could also be programmed to fit individual needs and allow reflection. To promote healthy eating successfully, nutrition knowledge is an applied knowledge that necessitates both education and reflection. Through reflective practice, a change of eating habit is expected to result. In this project, we applied self-monitoring as a strategy by using mobile apps as the tools to provide behavioural feedback for young adults’ dietary patterns. We aim to motivate the young adults to change their eating behaviour based on the principle of balanced diet.