Associations Between Meal Planning and Food Ordering Features of a Digital Precision Nutrition Platform and Improvements in Diet Quality

Abstract

\n \n \n Foodsmart is a digital precision nutrition platform that seeks to address barriers to healthy eating with features including (but not limited to) personalized dietary recommendations based on food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) responses, a meal planner, grocery list, and food ordering capabilities. We investigated the association between engagement with these features and changes in diet quality over time.\n \n \n \n We included 9939 obese adults ages 18–80 living in the U.S. who enrolled in Foodsmart. Usual dietary intake, age, weight, height, and sex were reported through a 53-item FFQ, modified from the National Cancer Institue s Diet History Questionnaire. A healthy diet score was calculated, which contains 7 components: fruits, vegetables, protein ratio (white meat/vegetarian protein: red/processed meat), carbohydrate ratio (fiber: carbohydrate), fat ratio (polyunsaturated: saturated/trans fats), sodium, and hydration (% of daily fluid goal). Change in diet quality was calculated by subtracting users’ first score from their last score. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of improvement in diet quality per engagement with each feature, adjusted for gender, age, baseline BMI, baseline diet score, and enrollment time.\n \n \n \n Of the 9,939 adults included in the analysis, 57% were between 40 and 59 years old and 21% were male. In multivariate regression models, each additional engagement with personalized dietary recommendations was associated with a 27% higher likelihood of improving diet (OR: 1.27, 95% CI: 1.16–1.39, P\xa0<\xa00.001). Each additional engagement with the meal planner, grocery list, and food ordering was associated, respectively, with a 12% (OR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.02–1.22, >P\xa0=\xa00.01), 15% (OR: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.05–1.26, P\xa0<\xa00.001), and 18% (OR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.00–1.38, P\xa0=\xa00.05) higher likelihood of improving diet quality.\n \n \n \n In our prospective study of obese users of a digital precision nutrition platform, we found that more frequent engagement with features related to meal planning and food ordering was associated with diet quality improvement.\n \n \n \n This study was funded by Foodsmart.\n