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Review
. 2022 Mar 18;14(6):1290.
doi: 10.3390/nu14061290.

Quality and Presence of Behaviour Change Techniques in Mobile Apps for the Mediterranean Diet: A Content Analysis of Android Google Play and Apple App Store Apps

Daniel McAleese  1   2 , Manolis Linardakis  3 , Angeliki Papadaki  1
Affiliations
Review

Quality and Presence of Behaviour Change Techniques in Mobile Apps for the Mediterranean Diet: A Content Analysis of Android Google Play and Apple App Store Apps

Daniel McAleese et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Smartphone apps might represent an opportunity to promote adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet). This study aimed to evaluate the quality of commercially available apps for the MedDiet and the presence of behavioural change techniques (BCTs) used by these apps. A systematic search was conducted on the Apple App and Google Play stores in November 2021. Apps were included if they provided information on the MedDiet or if their objective was to promote a healthy lifestyle through adherence to the MedDiet. Eligible apps were independently evaluated by two reviewers with regard to their quality (engagement, functionality, aesthetics and information quality) using the 5-point Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS; with higher scores indicating higher quality), and the presence of BCTs using an established 26-item BCT taxonomy. Of the 55 analysed apps, 52 (94.5%) were free, 50 (90.9%) provided recipe ideas, 29 (52.7%) provided meal plans, and 22 (40%) provided information on the health benefits of the MedDiet. The overall quality mean MARS score was 2.84 (standard deviation (SD) = 0.42), with functionality being the highest scored MARS domain (mean = 3.58, SD = 0.44) and engagement the lowest (mean = 2.29, SD = 0.61). The average number of BCTs in the analysed apps was 2.3 (SD = 1.4; range: 0-6 per app). The number of BCTs was positively correlated with app information quality (rrho = 0.269, p = 0.047), overall MARS score (rrho = 0.267, p = 0.049), app subjective quality (rrho = 0.326, p = 0.015) and app-specific quality (rrho = 0.351, p = 0.009). These findings suggest that currently available apps might provide information on the MedDiet, but the incorporation of more BCTs is warranted to maximise the potential for behaviour change towards the MedDiet.

Keywords: Mediterranean diet; behaviour change techniques; content analysis; mobile apps; mobile health (mHealth); quality; smartphone.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of app search and selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Presence of individual behaviour change techniques in the analysed apps. Values on the x-axis denote the proportion of apps a behaviour change technique was present in.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Presence of individual behaviour change techniques in the analysed apps, according to platform. Values on the x-axis denote the proportion of apps a behaviour change technique was present in.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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