MyKid'sNutrition mobile application: effect on mothers' nutritional knowledge and nutritional status of preschool-aged children with undernutrition - a randomised controlled trial

Background Undernutrition during childhood can negatively impact a child's health, growth, cognitive abilities, and future educational and economic attainment in adulthood. Also, childhood undernutrition can lead to a higher risk of developing non-communicable diseases. Alongside several socioeconomic and environmental factors contributing to children's undernutrition, maternal nutrition literacy is of noticeable importance. The ubiquity of mobile devices and their use in daily life create new paths for health promotion interventions.Objectives The aim of our study was to evaluate the efficacy of the MyKid'sNutrition application in promoting maternal nutritional knowledge, attitude and practice, as well as children's nutritional status.Methods We conducted a two-arm parallel randomised controlled trial (1:1 ratio) involving 116 mothers of children aged 2-6 years with undernutrition. Participants were allocated to the intervention (MyKid'sNutrition application+standard care) or the control group (standard care alone). All outcomes were measured at baseline and after a 3-month intervention period.Results There were no significant differences between baseline characteristics of mothers and children. We found that the interaction effect of time and group was significant for weight and body mass index (BMI) for age, but not significant for height for age. We also observed that the effect of time and group interaction was significant for maternal nutritional knowledge, feeding attitudes and nutrition practices.Conclusions The maternal nutritional knowledge, attitudes and practices in the intervention group were higher than the control group. Also, children's weight and BMI for age z-scores changed more compared with the control group.Trial registration number IRCT20140907019082N11.