Adaptation and Evaluation of Myfood24-Germany: A Web-Based Self-Administered 24-h Dietary Recall for the German Adult Population

Abstract

Our aim was to develop and evaluate a German adaptation of myfood24, a fully automated, web-based 24-h dietary recall (24HDR). To complete a self-administered 24HDR with myfood24, users have to search and enter consumed foods within the underlying database by a free text search. The adaptation process thus mainly consisted of the development of an appropriate food database. myfood24-Germany was evaluated in 92 adults aged 17–78 years (study 1). Participants completed four non-consecutive 24HDRs and answered an evaluation questionnaire after the final recall. The System Usability Scale Score (SUS Score, 0–100) was calculated. Users’ search behavior was examined with screen recordings in 15 adults aged 20–60 years (study 2). Participants had to enter three sample meals presented as food packaging or pictures. The final database included 11,501 food items (7203 generic and 4298 branded items) with up to 131 nutrients. In study 1, the median completion time for a 24HDR was 15 min. The median SUS score of 78 indicated good usability. The majority of participants considered the overall user-friendliness as good (46%) or very good (21%), and 75% were willing to use myfood24-Germany regularly. Both studies showed that finding and choosing an appropriate item within the database was a major challenge. A German version of myfood24 was successfully developed. The user evaluation indicated a short completion time, good usability and acceptability of the tool, and confirmed its feasibility for repeated short-term application.