mHealth Improved Fruit and Vegetable Accessibility and Intake in Young Children

Objective: To explore the potential of mHealth using smartphones to improve fruit and vegetable intake in children. Design: A 10-week randomized control and intervention pilot study. Setting: Story time sessions at local libraries. Participants: A convenience sample of 30 parents and children (aged 3-8 years). Intervention: Delivery of nutrition intervention through the mobile Jump2Health website, Facebook posts, and text messages. Main Outcome Measures: Electronic food photos of children's meals and snacks, 10-question survey related to fruit and vegetable consumption, reflectance spectroscopy via Veggie Meter to measure skin carotenoid levels, body mass index percentiles, and a mobile learning survey. Analysis: Descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test. Results: Veggie Meter values for children and parents showed significant week x treatment interactions in the intervention group compared with the control group for both children (P < .001 and parents (P < .001). Conclusions and Implications: This pilot study offers a potentially effective program including a mobile Web site, social media, and test message components to increase fruit and vegetable intake of young children.