Use of Technology for Dietary Assessment in Immigrant Populations

Abstract

To determine the impact of educational programs on immigrant groups in the United States, nutrition educators must have assessment and evaluation tools that use the language and vocabulary of the target population. Filipino Americans exhibit health disparities with regard to several conditions and are an important target for nutrition education. Currently, there are no existing rigorously tested tools in the Tagalog language which also have a low user burden and are designed to measure diet for assessment and evaluation of nutrition education programs. As these programs are generally evaluated using time-intensive dietary assessment tools not tailored specifically to Filipinos, they may not effectively characterize the diet of this population. Given the high adoption rates of mobile phones by populations outside of the United States, mobile apps may represent a best choice for developing tools to assist individuals recently migrating to the United States or speaking English as an additional language. Several tools of this nature have been developed for immigrant groups and hold promise in terms of acceptability. Examples of dietary assessment tools using technology developed for Spanish speakers in the United States are provided. These methods may also be appropriate for addressing the needs of immigrant groups such as Filipinos.