The development of a mobile u-Health program and evaluation for self-diet management for diabetic patients

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: This study aims to develop a mobile nutritional management program for integration into the already developed web-based program, Diabetes Mellitus Dietary Management Guide (DMDMG) for diabetic patients. Further, we aim to evaluate the amended DMDMG program. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The mobile application based on an Android operating system includes three parts: 1) record of diet intake, which allows users to take pictures of the meal and save to later add diet records into DMDMG; 2) an alarm system that rings at each meal time, which reminds users to input the data; 3) displays the diet record and the results of nutrient intake, which can be also viewed through the web program. All three parts are linked to the web-based program. A survey was conducted to evaluate the program in terms of nutrition knowledge, dietary attitude, eating behavior and diet intake by non-equivalent control group design among diabetic patients with 14 DMDMG users and 12 non-user controls after a one-month trial of DMDMG. RESULTS: Non-users did not use the program, but participated in the weekly off-line nutrition classes for one month. The program users showed increased healthful dietary behavior (P < 0.01) and dietary attitude scores (P < 0.05). More DMDMG users had higher nutrition knowledge scores after one-month trial than non-users. However, dietary intake significantly increased in non-user group for calcium and sodium (P < 0.05) while the user group did not show significant changes. CONCLUSIONS: The program has created positive changes in patients' dietary life. All the users were satisfied with the program, although some expressed minor difficulties with an unfamiliar mobile app.

The development of a mobile u-Health program and evaluation for self-diet management for diabetic patients

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: This study aims to develop a mobile nutritional management program for integration into the already developed web-based program, Diabetes Mellitus Dietary Management Guide (DMDMG) for diabetic patients. Further, we aim to evaluate the amended DMDMG program. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The mobile application based on an Android operating system includes three parts: 1) record of diet intake, which allows users to take pictures of the meal and save to later add diet records into DMDMG; 2) an alarm system that rings at each meal time, which reminds users to input the data; 3) displays the diet record and the results of nutrient intake, which can be also viewed through the web program. All three parts are linked to the web-based program. A survey was conducted to evaluate the program in terms of nutrition knowledge, dietary attitude, eating behavior and diet intake by non-equivalent control group design among diabetic patients with 14 DMDMG users and 12 non-user controls after a one-month trial of DMDMG. RESULTS: Non-users did not use the program, but participated in the weekly off-line nutrition classes for one month. The program users showed increased healthful dietary behavior (P < 0.01) and dietary attitude scores (P < 0.05). More DMDMG users had higher nutrition knowledge scores after one-month trial than non-users. However, dietary intake significantly increased in non-user group for calcium and sodium (P < 0.05) while the user group did not show significant changes. CONCLUSIONS: The program has created positive changes in patients' dietary life. All the users were satisfied with the program, although some expressed minor difficulties with an unfamiliar mobile app.

Development of Web-based u-Health Self-nutrition Management Program for Diabetic Patients / 대한지역사회영양학회지

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to develop web-based self-nutrition management u-Health program for diabetic patients (DMDMG: Diabetes Mellitus Dietary Management Guide) for achieving systematic self-management of diet. METHODS: The program consisted of five parts with different contents according to the results of needs assessment. Five major parts were 1) meal management part which contains calorie prescription, meals recording and dietary assessment, 2) prevention of disease part with information of diabetes and assessment of dietary behavior, 3) dietary behavior modification part with an education on dietary behavior modification plan and dietary behavior plan, 4) meal plan containing a training section for meal plan and self constructing part for meal planning by making tables, and 5) information about myself which composed with general and physical information. The system proposed in this study provides nutrients intake results right after input of diet intake, which is possible with simultaneous calculation of input data in the server with 3,495 food and 1,821 meal data base. The nutrients analysis program was evaluated with 26 diabetic patients with two-day 24 hr recall. RESULTS: The differences of nutrients intakes between DMDMG and CANPRO 3.0 ranged from 13.5-16.5%, which was caused by the differences of databases of the two programs. The characteristics of DMDMG were; 1) it can provide an interactive tailored nutrition management, 2) it is a practical tool of diabetes nutritional management, 3) the program gives motivation for the dietary behavior modification. CONCLUSIONS: The effectiveness of whole program needs to be conducted, but the program was an innovative tool for self-management of nutrient intakes, diet behaviors, meal management and tailored nutrition education.

Needs Assessment for Web-based Self-management Program by the Nutrition Knowledge Levels of Diabetic Patients / 대한지역사회영양학회지

This study was conducted to assess needs of self-management nutrition program for diabetic patients. The survey was conducted among 100 diabetic patients, and the mean age of the subjects was 54.2 years old. Thirty three percent of the subjects were diagnosed diabetes less than 2 years ago. The average nutrition knowledge score about diabetes was 10.2 point, and percentages of correct answers were very high in 'foods rich in fiber' (97.0%), 'relevance of exercise and insulin' (97.0%), 'quantity of insulin injection' (91.0%), and 'diabetes menu' (91.0%). The sources of nutrition information were hospitals/healthcare centers (56.1%), TV/radio (19.2%), and internet (13.1%). Sixty nine percent of the subjects have experienced nutrition education on subjects as 'menu planning skills' (22.4%), 'selecting foods' (22.4%), 'relevance of blood glucose and eating foods' (21.5%) by personal counseling (54.4%). The total score of eating behavior was higher after diagnosed diabetes (35.3) than before (30.0) (p < 0.001). The preferred topics in developing diabetes nutrition information websites were 'diabetes mellitus', 'relevance of blood glucose and foods', and 'selecting foods for diabetes'. The subjects wanted the websites developed by 'using mainly illustrations, pictures, tables' (22.8%) and 'using simple design' (19.6%). The preferred contents in developing diabetes self-management nutrition program were 'dietary life diagnosis', 'chronic disease risk diagnosis', 'calorie control by selecting foods and cooking skills', and 'dietary assessment'. In designing the program, the subjects' most wanted designs were 'be handy and simple in using' (29.3%), 'using simple design' (17.9%), and 'using mainly illustrations, pictures, tables' (15.7%).