Lübomira Spassova

Promising approaches of computer-supported dietary assessment and management-Current research status and available applications.

PURPOSE The aim of this review was to analyze computer-based tools for dietary management (including web-based and mobile devices) from both scientific and applied perspectives, presenting advantages and disadvantages as well as the state of validation. METHODS For this cross-sectional analysis, scientific results from 41 articles retrieved via a medline search as well as 29 applications from online markets were identified and analyzed. RESULTS Results show that many approaches computerize well-established existing nutritional concepts for dietary assessment, e.g., food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) or dietary recalls (DR). Both food records and barcode scanning are less prominent in research but are frequently offered by commercial applications. Integration with a personal health record (PHR) or a health care workflow is suggested in the literature but is rarely found in mobile applications. CONCLUSIONS It is expected that employing food records for dietary assessment in research settings will be increasingly used when simpler interfaces, e.g., barcode scanning techniques, and comprehensive food databases are applied, which can also support user adherence to dietary interventions and follow-up phases of nutritional studies.

Randomised controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy and usability of a computerised phone-based lifestyle coaching system for primary and secondary prevention of stroke

BackgroundOne of the most effective current approaches to preventing stroke events is the reduction of lifestyle risk factors, such as unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and smoking. In this study, we assessed the efficacy and usability of the phone-based Computer-aided Prevention System (CAPSYS) in supporting the reduction of lifestyle-related risk factors.MethodsA single-centre two-arm clinical trial was performed between January 2013 and February 2014, based on individual follow-up periods of six months with 94 patients at high risk of stroke, randomly assigned to an intervention group (IC: 48; advised to use the CAPSYS system) or a standard care group (SC: 46). Study parameters, such as blood pressure, blood values (HDL, LDL, HbA1c, glycaemia and triglycerides), weight, height, physical activity as well as nutrition and smoking habits were captured through questionnaires and medical records at baseline and post-intervention and analysed to detect significant changes. The usability of the intervention was assessed based on the standardised System Usability Scale (SUS) complemented by a more system-specific user satisfaction and feedback questionnaire.ResultsThe statistical evaluation of primary measures revealed significant decreases of systolic blood pressure (mean of the differences = –9 mmHg; p = 0.03; 95 % CI = [–17.29, –0.71]), LDL (pseudo-median of the differences = –7.9 mg/dl; p = 0.04; 95 % CI = [–18.5, –0.5]) and triglyceride values (pseudo-median of the differences = –12.5 mg/dl; p = 0.04; 95 % CI = [–26, –0.5]) in the intervention group, while no such changes could be observed in the control group. Furthermore, we detected a statistically significant increase in self-reported fruit and vegetable consumption (pseudo-median of the differences = 5.4 servings/week; p = 0.04; 95 % CI = [0.5, 10.5]) and a decrease in sweets consumption (pseudo-median of the differences = –2 servings/week; p = 0.04; 95 % CI = [–4, –0.00001]) in the intervention group. The usability assessment showed that the CAPSYS system was, in general, highly accepted by the users (average SUS score: 80.1).ConclusionsThe study provided encouraging results indicating that a computerised phone-based lifestyle coaching system, such as CAPSYS, can support the usual treatment in reducing cerebro-cardiovascular risk factors and that such an approach is well applicable in practice.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02444715

Pilot Testing of a Computer-Aided Prevention System (CAPSYS) - Study Protocol of a Randomized Controlled Trial

The CAPSYS system enables automated lifestyle coaching for CVD patients through a phone-based interface with the aim of establishing a healthy behavior by reducing specific risk factors. This paper presents the procedure of a randomized controlled trial currently performed to evaluate the CAPSYS prevention approach in terms of efficacy and usability.

MoFIS: a mobile user interface for semi-automatic extraction of food product ingredient lists

The availability of food ingredient information in digital form is a major factor in modern information systems related to diet management and health issues. Although ingredient information is printed on food product labels, corresponding digital data is rarely available for the public. In this demo, we present the Mobile Food Information Scanner (MoFIS), a mobile user interface designed to enable users to semi-automatically extract ingredient lists from food product packaging.