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

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Eating Behavior; Healthy Nutrition
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Intervention arm

Detailed Description

After the parents of the participating children had signed an informed consent and filled in the baseline questionnaires, the participating early childhood education and care (ECEC) centers (in Finland) or groups within the ECEC centers (in Poland) were randomly allocated into intervention and control arms. Researchers visited the intervention arm groups and introduced the application to the ECEC professionals. The ECEC professionals were instructed to use the application with a tablet computer at least one to two 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, the research team recommended that each group focuses on at least six vegetables or fruits during the intervention period. The control arm groups were instructed to continue their normal routines during the intervention period and to refrain from introducing any novel food education methods during the intervention period.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 326
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Finland
  • Helsinki, Finland
    • University of Helsinki

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 3 years to 6 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

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

Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Application use arm; 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; The intervention arm groups were instructed to use the Mole's Veggie Adventures mobile application for 3-4 weeks.; Other Names: Mole's Veggie Adventures
No Intervention: Control arm; 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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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 Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Emotionality (post intervention)	The parents filled in a questionnaire describing the emotionality of the children using a Likert scale (1-5). The questionnaire covered four emotions. An average of two items per emotion were used to calculate the variables (scale 1-5).	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 a questionnaire describing the emotion regulation of the children using a Likert scale (1-5). The questionnaire covered four emotions. An average of two items per emotion were used to calculate the variables (scale 1-5).	The parents filled in the questionnaire after the intervention (4-5 weeks after the onset of the intervention).

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Helsinki
• Collaborators: Tampere University; University of Eastern Finland; Folkhälsan Research Center; University of Warsaw; EIT Food

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• 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.

Helpful Links

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

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 1, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 30, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): November 30, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 29, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 10, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): December 29, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 29, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 10, 2021
• Last Verified: December 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Randomized trial; Smartphone application; Mobile application; Games for health
• Other Study ID Numbers: 19057

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No