Pilot Study: The Effectiveness of a Mobile Application in Increasing Vegetable Acceptance

NCT05173311 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 19057
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 326
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Mole's Veggie Adventures mobile application in increasing fruit and vegetable acceptance among 3-6-year-olds.

Conditions

Healthy Nutrition; Eating Behavior

Keywords

Games for health; Mobile application; Smartphone application; Randomized trial

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Fruit and vegetable acceptance (post intervention)

  The parents filled in a questionnaire listing 25 vegetables and fruits and inquiring whether these had been offered to the child during the past 4 weeks and how the child reacted to those that had been served. All the listed vegetables and fruits were introduced in the app. The answer options were 0=was not offered during the past four weeks, 1=refused to touch food, 2=touched food but did not put in/near mouth, 3=put food to lips but not in mouth, 4=put food in mouth but spat out/did not eat, and 5=ate food. For each participant, we calculated an fruit and vegetable acceptance score by summing the answers to each of the 25 vegetable and fruit items, with higher scores indicating a higher fruit and vegetable acceptance (theoretical range 0-125).

  The parents filled in the questionnaire after the intervention (4-5 weeks after the onset of the intervention).

• Relative fruit and vegetable acceptance (post intervention)

  Using the same questionnaire, we calculated the number of fruits and vegetables served during the past 4 weeks (range 0-25) and used this information to create a relative fruits and vegetable acceptance score (range 0-5) by dividing the fruits and vegetable acceptance score by the number of fruits and vegetables served.

  The parents filled in the questionnaire after the intervention (4-5 weeks after the onset of the intervention).

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Emotionality (post intervention)

  The parents filled in the questionnaire after the intervention (4-5 weeks after the onset of the intervention).

• Emotion regulation (post intervention)

  The parents filled in the questionnaire after the intervention (4-5 weeks after the onset of the intervention).

Study Arms (2)

Application use arm

EXPERIMENTAL

The early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals in the intervention arm groups were instructed to use the application with a tablet computer at least 1-2 times a week during the intervention period (3-4 weeks) and to record the number of tasks completed by their group in a logbook. In addition, we recommended that each group focus on at least six vegetables or fruits during the intervention period.

Behavioral: Intervention arm

Control arm

NO INTERVENTION

The control arm groups were instructed to continue their normal routines during the intervention period. They were instructed to refrain from introducing any novel food education methods during the intervention period.

Interventions

Intervention arm BEHAVIORAL

The intervention arm groups were instructed to use the Mole's Veggie Adventures mobile application for 3-4 weeks.

Also known as: Mole's Veggie Adventures

Application use arm

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 3 Years - 6 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• All children in the participating early childhood education and care (ECEC) groups

You may not qualify if:

• None

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Helsinki: lead
• University of Warsaw: collaborator
• University of Eastern Finland: collaborator
• Folkhälsan Research Center: collaborator
• Tampere University: collaborator
• EIT Food: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of Helsinki

Helsinki, Finland

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Vepsalainen H, Skaffari E, Wojtkowska K, Barlinska J, Kinnunen S, Makkonen R, Heikkila M, Lehtovirta M, Ray C, Suhonen E, Nevalainen J, Sajaniemi N, Erkkola M. A Mobile App to Increase Fruit and Vegetable Acceptance Among Finnish and Polish Preschoolers: Randomized Trial. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2022 Jan 4;10(1):e30352. doi: 10.2196/30352.

  PMID: 34982718 DERIVED

Related Links

• A video demonstrating the most important sections of the current version of the Mole's Veggie Adventures application.

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Feeding Behavior

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior, Animal; Behavior

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal investigator

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: November 29, 2021
• First Posted: December 29, 2021
• Study Start: September 1, 2019
• Primary Completion: November 30, 2019
• Study Completion: November 30, 2019
• Last Updated: December 29, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-12

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

FI (1)