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Quality and Presence of Behaviour Change Techniques in Mobile Apps for the Mediterranean Diet: A Content Analysis of Android Google Play and Apple App Store Apps

Smartphone apps might represent an opportunity to promote adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet). This study aimed to evaluate the quality of commercially available apps for the MedDiet and the presence of behavioural change techniques (BCTs) used by these apps. A systematic search was conduc...

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Autores principales: McAleese, Daniel, Linardakis, Manolis, Papadaki, Angeliki
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8950036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35334947
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14061290
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author McAleese, Daniel
Linardakis, Manolis
Papadaki, Angeliki
author_facet McAleese, Daniel
Linardakis, Manolis
Papadaki, Angeliki
author_sort McAleese, Daniel
collection PubMed
description Smartphone apps might represent an opportunity to promote adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet). This study aimed to evaluate the quality of commercially available apps for the MedDiet and the presence of behavioural change techniques (BCTs) used by these apps. A systematic search was conducted on the Apple App and Google Play stores in November 2021. Apps were included if they provided information on the MedDiet or if their objective was to promote a healthy lifestyle through adherence to the MedDiet. Eligible apps were independently evaluated by two reviewers with regard to their quality (engagement, functionality, aesthetics and information quality) using the 5-point Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS; with higher scores indicating higher quality), and the presence of BCTs using an established 26-item BCT taxonomy. Of the 55 analysed apps, 52 (94.5%) were free, 50 (90.9%) provided recipe ideas, 29 (52.7%) provided meal plans, and 22 (40%) provided information on the health benefits of the MedDiet. The overall quality mean MARS score was 2.84 (standard deviation (SD) = 0.42), with functionality being the highest scored MARS domain (mean = 3.58, SD = 0.44) and engagement the lowest (mean = 2.29, SD = 0.61). The average number of BCTs in the analysed apps was 2.3 (SD = 1.4; range: 0–6 per app). The number of BCTs was positively correlated with app information quality (r(rho) = 0.269, p = 0.047), overall MARS score (r(rho) = 0.267, p = 0.049), app subjective quality (r(rho) = 0.326, p = 0.015) and app-specific quality (r(rho) = 0.351, p = 0.009). These findings suggest that currently available apps might provide information on the MedDiet, but the incorporation of more BCTs is warranted to maximise the potential for behaviour change towards the MedDiet.
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spelling pubmed-89500362022-03-26 Quality and Presence of Behaviour Change Techniques in Mobile Apps for the Mediterranean Diet: A Content Analysis of Android Google Play and Apple App Store Apps McAleese, Daniel Linardakis, Manolis Papadaki, Angeliki Nutrients Article Smartphone apps might represent an opportunity to promote adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet). This study aimed to evaluate the quality of commercially available apps for the MedDiet and the presence of behavioural change techniques (BCTs) used by these apps. A systematic search was conducted on the Apple App and Google Play stores in November 2021. Apps were included if they provided information on the MedDiet or if their objective was to promote a healthy lifestyle through adherence to the MedDiet. Eligible apps were independently evaluated by two reviewers with regard to their quality (engagement, functionality, aesthetics and information quality) using the 5-point Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS; with higher scores indicating higher quality), and the presence of BCTs using an established 26-item BCT taxonomy. Of the 55 analysed apps, 52 (94.5%) were free, 50 (90.9%) provided recipe ideas, 29 (52.7%) provided meal plans, and 22 (40%) provided information on the health benefits of the MedDiet. The overall quality mean MARS score was 2.84 (standard deviation (SD) = 0.42), with functionality being the highest scored MARS domain (mean = 3.58, SD = 0.44) and engagement the lowest (mean = 2.29, SD = 0.61). The average number of BCTs in the analysed apps was 2.3 (SD = 1.4; range: 0–6 per app). The number of BCTs was positively correlated with app information quality (r(rho) = 0.269, p = 0.047), overall MARS score (r(rho) = 0.267, p = 0.049), app subjective quality (r(rho) = 0.326, p = 0.015) and app-specific quality (r(rho) = 0.351, p = 0.009). These findings suggest that currently available apps might provide information on the MedDiet, but the incorporation of more BCTs is warranted to maximise the potential for behaviour change towards the MedDiet. MDPI 2022-03-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8950036/ /pubmed/35334947 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14061290 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
McAleese, Daniel
Linardakis, Manolis
Papadaki, Angeliki
Quality and Presence of Behaviour Change Techniques in Mobile Apps for the Mediterranean Diet: A Content Analysis of Android Google Play and Apple App Store Apps
title Quality and Presence of Behaviour Change Techniques in Mobile Apps for the Mediterranean Diet: A Content Analysis of Android Google Play and Apple App Store Apps
title_full Quality and Presence of Behaviour Change Techniques in Mobile Apps for the Mediterranean Diet: A Content Analysis of Android Google Play and Apple App Store Apps
title_fullStr Quality and Presence of Behaviour Change Techniques in Mobile Apps for the Mediterranean Diet: A Content Analysis of Android Google Play and Apple App Store Apps
title_full_unstemmed Quality and Presence of Behaviour Change Techniques in Mobile Apps for the Mediterranean Diet: A Content Analysis of Android Google Play and Apple App Store Apps
title_short Quality and Presence of Behaviour Change Techniques in Mobile Apps for the Mediterranean Diet: A Content Analysis of Android Google Play and Apple App Store Apps
title_sort quality and presence of behaviour change techniques in mobile apps for the mediterranean diet: a content analysis of android google play and apple app store apps
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8950036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35334947
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14061290
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