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

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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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.

Detailed Description
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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.

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

Conditions
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Healthy Nutrition, Eating Behavior

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Intervention arm


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: All children in the participating early childhood education and care (ECEC) groups Exclusion Criteria: None

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 3 Years
Maximum Age: 6 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

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


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Application use arm<br>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<br>* The intervention arm groups were instructed to use the Mole's Veggie Adventures mobile application for 3-4 weeks.<br>* Other names: Mole's Veggie Adventures;|
| No Intervention: Control arm<br>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?
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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). | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Games for health, Mobile application, Smartphone application, Randomized trial