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DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1710226
Validation of a food group-based app for real-time nutritional assessment in Uganda
Providing an adequate supply of nutrients is an essential component of ensuring food security. To estimate the nutrient intake at the individual level, user-friendly and precise dietary assessment tools are required. In response to that, the innovative nutrition software CIMI (Calculator for Inadequate Micronutrient Intake) has been developed. The mobile android application calculates the dietary intake based on food-groups and nutrition patterns in real time. However, CIMI app is currently available to a limited number of countries, e.g. Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana, Zambia (Uganda previously excluded).
In order to implement and validate the CIMI approach in Uganda, quantitative data on food consumption of 150 Ugandan women of childbearing age (20-50 years) were obtained by conducting a cross-sectional survey in Lango Sub-Region, Northern Uganda. Initially, a new app configuration (CIMI-Uganda) was constructed and adapted to the Ugandan dietary patterns, using local food composition tables and food consumption data. Moreover, appropriate food groups were formed and common Ugandan food utensils identified for portion size estimation. The nutrient intake calculation of study participants (24-hours dietary recall method) was conducted using both, CIMI app and the standard nutrition software NutriSurvey (NS) as a reference method, to test CIMI-Uganda in terms of validity. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS Statistics.
This study demonstrated a very high degree of validity for the CIMI-Uganda app in calculating individual’s intake of energy, macro- and micronutrients in an Ugandan setting, which resulted from high levels of accuracy, high Pearson’s correlation coefficients (R≥0.75) between CIMI and NS as wells as Bland-Altman plots (agreement limit: ±1.96SD). Thus, findings provide supportive evidence of the accuracy of CIMI approach as a valid easy-to-use and time-saving dietary assessment tool.
CIMI app is holding large potential for Uganda and other countries to rapidly generate high-quality datasets on individual dietary intakes on a large scale. The soon available feature of geomapping, visualizing nutritional data from different geographic locations, will additionally allow the overview of nutritional deficits of entire regions. Both represent a valuable basis to effectively counteract micronutrient gaps.
Publication History
Article published online:
16 June 2020
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Stuttgart · New York