Background: Dietary assessment using smartphone could solve problem related nutrition
especially among college student in Indonesia and Taiwan. College students tend to choose
unhealthy food in new environment that increase obesity risk. Dietary pattern in Taiwan and
Indonesia were different so the validity of dietary assessment using smartphone application
was important among both country. Monitoring dietary intake using smartphone are accurate,
not time consuming, decrease burdensome, and low measurement error. MyfitnessPal (MFP) is
a smartphone application which very helpful for monitoring dietary intake even though among
non-English speaker country.
Objectives: The study aimed to compare the relative validity of smartphone app-based food records (MFP)
versus 7-days computer-based food record for assessing energy, macronutrient and micronutrient
of Taiwanese and Indonesian College Students.
Methods:
Indonesian students (n=17) and Taiwanese students (n=9) volunteered and recorded 7-day
dietary intake using MFP and 7-days computer-based food record with additional food picture.
The values of energy, macronutrients and fiber from MFP were compared with data from food
record, calculated using Taiwan and Indonesia food composition software. Comparisons were
made between each data set using the Wilcoxon rank test, paired t-test, linear regression, and
the Bland-Altman agreement plots.
Results:
Repeated measures Bland-Altman plots showed good agreement for both methods. These
finding showed that among Indonesian and Taiwanese, there was a non-significant difference in
energy, macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate, fat) and sodium intake between the two methods.
Moreover, some nutrients such as fiber and cholesterol found a significant difference between
MFP and 7d food record.
Conclusions: MFP showed good relative validity, especially for energy, macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate,
fat) and sodium intake.
Keyword:
Dietary Assessmen