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- Title
A Web-Based Time-Use Application to Assess Diet and Movement Behavior in Asian Schoolchildren: Development and Usability Study of My E-Diary for Activities and Lifestyle (MEDAL).
- Authors
Chia, Airu; Chew, Muhammad Naeem Jia Sheng; Tan, Sarah Yi Xuan; Chan, Mei Jun; Colega, Marjorelee T; Toh, Jia Ying; Natarajan, Padmapriya; Lança, Carla; Shek, Lynette P; Saw, Seang-Mei; Müller-Riemenschneider, Falk; Chong, Mary Foong-Fong; T Colega, Marjorelee
- Abstract
<bold>Background: </bold>Web-based time-use diaries for schoolchildren are limited, and existing studies focus mostly on capturing physical activities and sedentary behaviors but less comprehensively on dietary behaviors.<bold>Objective: </bold>This study aims to describe the development of My E-Diary for Activities and Lifestyle (MEDAL)-a self-administered, web-based time-use application to assess diet and movement behavior-and to evaluate its usability in schoolchildren in Singapore.<bold>Methods: </bold>MEDAL was developed through formative research and an iterative user-centric design approach involving small groups of schoolchildren (ranging from n=5 to n=15, aged 7-13 years). To test the usability, children aged 10-11 years were recruited from 2 primary schools in Singapore to complete MEDAL for 2 weekdays and 2 weekend days and complete a 10-item usability questionnaire.<bold>Results: </bold>The development process revealed that younger children (aged <9 years) were less able to complete MEDAL independently. Of the 204 participants (118/204, 57.8% boys, and 31/201, 15.4% overweight) in the usability study, 57.8% (118/204) completed 3 to 4 days of recording, whereas the rest recorded for 2 days or less. The median time taken to complete MEDAL was 14.2 minutes per day. The majority of participants agreed that instructions were clear (193/203, 95.1%), that MEDAL was easy to use (173/203, 85.2%), that they liked the application (172/202, 85.1%), and that they preferred recording their activities on the web than on paper (167/202, 82.7%). Among all the factors evaluated, recording for 4 days was the least satisfactory component reported. Compared with boys, girls reported better recall ability and agreed that the time spent on completing 1-day entry was appropriate.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>MEDAL appears to be a feasible application to capture diet and movement behaviors in children aged 10-12 years, particularly in the Asian context. Some gender differences in usability performance were observed, but the majority of the participants had a positive experience using MEDAL. The validation of the data collected through the application is in progress.
- Subjects
SINGAPORE; WEB-based user interfaces; SCHOOL children; SEDENTARY behavior; CHILD psychology; MEDALS; LIFESTYLES; RESEARCH; AWARDS; INTERNET; RESEARCH methodology; DIET; MEDICAL cooperation; EVALUATION research; COMPARATIVE studies
- Publication
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2021, Vol 23, Issue 6, pN.PAG
- ISSN
1439-4456
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.2196/25794