Older Adults' Engagement in Technology-Mediated Self-Monitoring of Diet: A Mixed-Method Study.
Caroline Farsjø Aure, Anders Kluge, Anne Moen
PMID 33316147WHAT IT FOUND
Most older adults used a diet self-monitoring iPad app during an eight-week study, and many became more confident with tablets.
Recording increased awareness of intake, but low energy and forgetting reduced regular use for some.
Key findings
01Fourteen participants used the app daily, six used it weekly, and five used it occasionally during the trial.
02Daily users said recording food and drink made them pay attention to their diet, while some less regular users found recording burdensome or hard to do when low in energy.
03Prior experience with touch technology did not determine regular use, and many participants gained confidence using tablets and the internet.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included only 25 older adults, and 14 of 39 recruited withdrew or died before or shortly after the trial started. Participants had good cognitive functioning and did not represent the full range of people receiving home care in Norway. The researchers could not guarantee that all home care participants had access to Appetitus for the full 8 weeks because introductions may have been delayed. Privacy rules prevented linking log data to demographics or interview data, so user patterns could not be directly connected to measured characteristics. There was no control group and no clinical nutrition outcome reported, so the study cannot show that Appetitus prevents or treats undernutrition. Use declined in the last weeks, and this may reflect both end-of-trial decline and delayed introductions.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that the app improves diet or treats undernutrition. It was a small feasibility study of 25 older adults that measured app use and experience, not nutrition outcomes.