Human Nutrition Program, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jan 25;19(3):1328. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19031328.
One of the most basic needs globally, food assistance refers to the multitude of programs, both governmental and non-governmental, to improve food access and consumption by food-insecure individuals and families. Despite the importance of digital and mobile Health (mHealth) strategies in food insecurity contexts, little is known about their specific use in food assistance programs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to address that gap by conducting a scoping review of the literature. Keywords were defined within the concepts of food assistance and digital technology. The search included relevant peer-reviewed and grey literature from 2011 to 2021. Excluded articles related to agriculture and non-digital strategies. PRISMA guidelines were followed to perform a partnered, two-round scoping literature review. The final synthesis included 39 studies of which most (84.6%) were from the last five years and United States-based (93.2%). The top three types of articles or studies included text and opinion, qualitative research, and website, application, or model development (17.9%). The top three types of digital tools were websites (56.4%), smartphone applications (20.5%), and chatbots (5.1%). Nineteen digital features were identified as desirable. Most tools included just one or two features. The most popular feature to include was online shopping ( = 14), followed by inventory management, and client tracking. Digital tools for individual food assistance represent an opportunity for equitable and stable access to programs that can enhance or replace in-person services. While this review identified 39 tools, all are in early development and/or implementation stages. Review findings highlight an overall lack of these tools, an absence of user-centered design in their development, and a critical need for research on their effectiveness globally. Further analysis and testing of current digital tool usage and interventions examining the health and food security impacts of such tools should be explored in future studies, including in the context of pandemics, where digital tools allow for help from a distance.
全球最基本的需求之一是食品援助,它指的是众多政府和非政府计划,旨在改善食品不安全个人和家庭的食品获取和消费。尽管数字和移动健康 (mHealth) 策略在食品不安全方面非常重要,但对于这些策略在食品援助计划中的具体使用,人们知之甚少。因此,本研究的目的是通过对文献进行范围综述来填补这一空白。关键词在食品援助和数字技术的概念内进行了定义。搜索范围包括 2011 年至 2021 年的相关同行评议和灰色文献。排除与农业和非数字策略相关的文章。按照 PRISMA 指南进行了合作伙伴、两轮范围综述文献。最终综合分析包括 39 项研究,其中大部分(84.6%)来自过去五年,93.2%来自美国。三种类型的文章或研究数量最多的是文本和意见、定性研究和网站、应用程序或模型开发(17.9%)。三种类型的数字工具是网站(56.4%)、智能手机应用程序(20.5%)和聊天机器人(5.1%)。确定了 19 个理想的数字功能。大多数工具仅包含一个或两个功能。最受欢迎的功能是在线购物(=14),其次是库存管理和客户跟踪。个人食品援助的数字工具代表了公平和稳定地获得可以增强或取代面对面服务的计划的机会。虽然本综述确定了 39 种工具,但它们都处于早期开发和/或实施阶段。审查结果突出表明,这些工具总体上缺乏、在开发过程中缺乏以用户为中心的设计,以及迫切需要在全球范围内对其有效性进行研究。未来的研究应进一步分析和测试当前数字工具的使用情况以及干预措施,研究这些工具对健康和粮食安全的影响,包括在大流行病背景下,因为数字工具允许远程提供帮助。