Development and validation of a smartphone application to analyze subjective appetite variables
Abstract
Introduction: Nowadays dietary treatment for obesity is not effective in most cases, probably because it is designed taking into account patient's total energy expenditure while other important circumstances such as hunger/satiety daily rhythms are usually not considered. New electronic devices may help in this regard. Objective: The objective of the present work was to develop an accurate and reliable smartphone application to analyze subjective appetite variables. Methods: Subjective appetite sensations were evaluated in 15 healthy volunteers by two different methods: paper and pen (P-P) and a new Android and iOS application. Appetite scores were completed every 30 minutes for 4 hours in two conditions: high-carbohydrate (HC) or high-fat (HF) breakfast. Secondly, subjects completed the new application every 30 minutes in free-living conditions. Results: Our repeated measures ANOVA revealed no significant differences regarding method (P-P or new application) or meal (HC or HF) (p > 0.05 in all cases) for hunger, desire to eat or fullness scores. Correlation coefficients showed a high agreement between both methods (R² from 0.94-0.98). In addition, Bland-Altman test also revealed a high concordance between both methods. The application was also able to measure daily variation of subjective sensations under free-living conditions. Conclusion: The smartphone application was able to accurately determine subjective appetite scores in both laboratory and free-living conditions. The application was able to detect the effect of meal and recovery of appetite during two different conditions, following HC or HF breakfasts, which confirm the suitability of this application to future studies conducted to evaluate appetite regulation in humans.
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