Caring Futures Institute, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood Centre of Research Excellence, Sydney, Australia.
JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2021 May 7;9(5):e22990. doi: 10.2196/22990.
Parents juggling caregiving and paid employment encounter a range of barriers in providing healthy food to their families. Mobile apps have the potential to help parents in planning, purchasing, and preparing healthy family food. The utility and acceptability of apps for supporting parents are unknown. User perspectives of existing technology, such as commercially available apps, can guide the development of evidence-based apps in the future.
This study aims to determine the feasibility of existing commercially available apps for supporting the healthy food provision practices of working parents.
Working parents (N=133) were recruited via the web and completed a 10-item Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behavior (COM-B) self-evaluation survey assessing their needs in relation to the provision of healthy family meals. A total of 5 apps were selected for testing, including a meal planning app, recipe app, recipe manager app, family organizer app, and barcode scanning app. Survey items were mapped to app features, with a subsample of parents (67/133, 50.4%) allocated 2 apps each to trial simultaneously over 4 weeks. A semistructured interview exploring app utility and acceptability and a web-based survey, including the System Usability Scale and the user version of the Mobile App Rating Scale, followed app testing. The interview data were analyzed using a theoretical thematic approach.
Survey participants (N=133; mean age 34 years, SD 4 years) were mainly mothers (130/133, 97.7%) and partnered (122/133, 91.7%). Participants identified a need for healthy recipes (109/133, 82% agreed or strongly agreed) and time for food provision processes (107/133, 80.5%). Engagement quality was the lowest rated domain of the user version of the Mobile App Rating Scale across all 5 apps (mean score per app ranging from 3.0 to 3.7 out of a maximum of 5). The family organizer, requiring a high level of user input, was rated the lowest for usability (median 48, IQR 34-73). In the interviews, participants weighed the benefits of the apps (ie, time saving) against the effort involved in using them in determining their acceptability. Organization was a subtheme emerging from interviews, associated with the use of meal planners and shopping lists. Meal planners and shopping lists were used in time, while behavior was occurring.
Meal planning apps and features promoting organization present feasible, time-saving solutions to support healthy food provision practices. Attention must be paid to enhancing app automation and integration, as well as recipe and nutrition content, to ensure that apps do not add to the time burden of food provision and are supportive of healthy food provision behavior in time.
兼顾照顾和有薪工作的父母在为家庭提供健康食品方面遇到了一系列障碍。移动应用程序有可能帮助父母规划、购买和准备健康的家庭食品。支持父母的应用程序的实用性和可接受性尚不清楚。现有技术（例如商业上可用的应用程序）的用户观点可以指导未来基于证据的应用程序的开发。
本研究旨在确定现有的商业上可用的应用程序在支持在职父母提供健康家庭膳食方面的可行性。
通过网络招募了 133 名在职父母，他们完成了 10 项能力、机会、动机和行为（COM-B）自我评估调查，以评估他们在提供健康家庭膳食方面的需求。选择了 5 个应用程序进行测试，包括一个膳食计划应用程序、一个食谱应用程序、一个食谱管理器应用程序、一个家庭组织者应用程序和一个条形码扫描应用程序。调查项目映射到应用程序功能上，其中 67/133 名（50.4%）父母被分配 2 个应用程序，每个应用程序同时试用 4 周。在应用程序测试之后，进行了一项探索应用程序实用性和可接受性的半结构化访谈，并进行了一项基于网络的调查，包括系统可用性量表和移动应用程序评级量表的用户版本。访谈数据采用理论主题方法进行分析。
调查参与者（N=133；平均年龄 34 岁，标准差 4 岁）主要是母亲（130/133，97.7%）和伴侣（122/133，91.7%）。参与者确定了对健康食谱（109/133，82%表示同意或强烈同意）和食品供应过程时间（107/133，80.5%）的需求。在所有 5 个应用程序中，用户版本的移动应用程序评级量表的参与质量评分最低（每个应用程序的平均评分范围为 5 分制中的 3.0 至 3.7 分）。家庭组织者需要用户输入的水平较高，其可用性评分最低（中位数 48，IQR 34-73）。在访谈中，参与者根据使用应用程序所涉及的努力来权衡应用程序的好处（即节省时间）与接受度。组织是从访谈中出现的一个子主题，与使用膳食计划器和购物清单有关。膳食计划器和购物清单在时间流逝时使用，而行为则在发生。
膳食计划应用程序和促进组织的功能提供了可行的、节省时间的解决方案，以支持健康食品供应实践。必须注意增强应用程序的自动化和集成，以及食谱和营养内容，以确保应用程序不会增加食品供应的时间负担，并在时间上支持健康食品供应行为。
