Accuracy of an Artificial Intelligence-Based Model for Estimating Leftover Liquid Food in Hospitals: Validation Study

An accurate evaluation of the nutritional status of malnourished hospitalized patients at a higher risk of complications, such as frailty or disability, is crucial. Visual methods of estimating food intake are popular for evaluating the nutritional status in clinical environments. However, from the perspective of accurate measurement, such methods are unreliable.

The accuracy of estimating leftover liquid food in hospitals using an artificial intelligence (AI)-based model was compared to that of visual estimation.

The accuracy of the AI-based model (AI estimation) was compared to that of the visual estimation method for thin rice gruel as staple food and fermented milk and peach juice as side dishes. A total of 576 images of liquid food (432 images of thin rice gruel, 72 of fermented milk, and 72 of peach juice) were used. The mean absolute error, root mean squared error, and coefficient of determination (R²) were used as metrics for determining the accuracy of the evaluation process. Welch t test and the confusion matrix were used to examine the difference of mean absolute error between AI and visual estimation.

The mean absolute errors obtained through the AI estimation approach were 0.63 for fermented milk, 0.25 for peach juice, and 0.85 for the total. These were significantly smaller than those obtained using the visual estimation approach, which were 1.40 (P<.001) for fermented milk, 0.90 (P<.001) for peach juice, and 1.03 (P=.009) for the total. By contrast, the mean absolute error for thin rice gruel obtained using the AI estimation method (0.99) did not differ significantly from that obtained using visual estimation (0.99). The confusion matrix for thin rice gruel showed variation in the distribution of errors, indicating that the errors in the AI estimation were biased toward the case of many leftovers. The mean squared error for all liquid foods tended to be smaller for the AI estimation than for the visual estimation. Additionally, the coefficient of determination (R²) for fermented milk and peach juice tended to be larger for the AI estimation than for the visual estimation, and the R² value for the total was equal in terms of accuracy between the AI and visual estimations.

The AI estimation approach achieved a smaller mean absolute error and root mean squared error and a larger coefficient of determination (R²) than the visual estimation approach for the side dishes. Additionally, the AI estimation approach achieved a smaller mean absolute error and root mean squared error compared to the visual estimation method, and the coefficient of determination (R²) was similar to that of the visual estimation method for the total. AI estimation measures liquid food intake in hospitals more precisely than visual estimation, but its accuracy in estimating staple food leftovers requires improvement.