Integrating Traffic Light Diet System via food analysis in Android app for adolescent nutrition education: A strategy to reduce sugar, salt, and fat consumption

Abstract

Introduction

In today's global food consumption trend, high sugar, salt, and fat dominate diets, especially among adolescents who frequently utilize online food ordering systems. Monitoring nutritional intake has thus become increasingly crucial. The Traffic Light Diet application serves as a tool to help track the nutritional content of online food purchases. This study aimed to enhance adolescent knowledge and attitudes towards healthier food choices.

Method

Adopting a quasi-experimental research design, the study employed a pre-test and posttest approach for both control and intervention groups. The sample comprised 110 participants from Airlangga University, aged 18–25 years, possessing Android devices capable of downloading the application. Participants were recruited and randomly allocated, with data collected through self-reported questionnaires and analyzed using independent and dependent t-tests through the SPSS application.

Results

Significant effects were observed in knowledge levels following nutritional education provision in both groups. However, no significant difference was found in attitudes posteducation. Specifically, the control group showed no significant difference in attitudes, whereas the intervention group did.

Discussion

While both groups demonstrated improvements in knowledge and attitude posteducation, the control group exhibited higher scores. Although there was a significant effect between nutrition education and knowledge, the impact on attitudes was insignificant in the control group. This fact maybe due to the differences between participant baseline characteristic such an educational background.

Conclusion

These findings suggest the Traffic Light Diet app is useful but has room for improvement to better influence attitudes towards nutrition among participants. Although there was a significant effect between nutrition education and knowledge, the impact on attitudes was insignificant in the control group. This fact maybe due to the differences between participant baseline characteristic such an educational background.