Testing the FoodWiz2 App
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Testing the usability and acceptability of a food intake and physical activity smartphone application in adolescents.
IRAS ID
159914
Contact name
Florence Jimoh
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Food Angels
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
IFR-07-2014, IFR Research Governance Committee
Research summary
This study will investigate the use, acceptability and perceived effectiveness of a Smartphone App in supporting healthy lifestyle choices in late adolescence.
The diet of many adolescents in the UK and across Europe is recognised to be of a poor quality and levels of physical activity less than recommended. Such lifestyle patterns are likely to establish long-term behaviours with resulting poor health outcomes and so need to be tackled at this crucial time when young people are moving toward independence from parents.Sixty students aged16-19 years will be recruited through schools and colleges. Volunteers will be asked to record food intake and physical activity using traditional paper based methods over 6 weeks then, after a short break, by using a Smartphone App for a further 6 weeks. The Sponsor has developed the App as part of a European Union funded project. Feedback on diet quality and exercise will be provided both by personal contact and electronically to help toward the adoption of a healthier lifestyle. Volunteers with relevant chronic health problems and those who are clinically underweight will be excluded from the study.
Ease of use will be assessed by numbers of days in which more than 500 Calories are recorded over each 6 week period and using questionnaires. Interviews will be conducted with a sub-set of volunteers to obtain more in-depth information.
REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/SC/1268
Date of REC Opinion
7 Nov 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion