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Updated: May 22, 2025
'Boden Food Plate': Novel Interactive Web-based Method for the Assessment of Dietary Intake
Published on: September 18, 2018
A pilot study on traditional vs. digital self-administered questionnaire completion in the International Weight
Dimitrios Poulimeneas1, Costas A Anastasiou1, Evgenia-Eleni Vlachogianni1
1Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Sciences and Education, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece.
Background & Aim:
Scarce reports on the characteristics of individuals choosing to enroll in obesity-related registries via digital or traditional methods exist. We examined whether characteristics of participants who enrolled in the International Weight Control Registry (IWCR) via digital surveys differed from those who enrolled with paper surveys.
Methods:
This manuscript describes the pilot phase of IWCR recruitment of eligible participants from one collaborating country. The IWCR includes questionnaires capturing biological, behavioral, environmental and psychosocial domains of weight management. All adult individuals with an intentional weight loss history, regardless of it being successful or not, are eligible to participate. Two invitations for participation were sent out. Firstly, potential participants were invited to complete the survey digitally; then, in the second invitation, potential volunteers were invited to complete the survey on paper.
Results:
A total of 69 persons with weight loss experiences completed this pilot survey (40 on-paper, 29 digitally). No differences were detected in the sex distribution and the level of education between groups (all p > 0.05). Fewer participants in the on-paper group reported to have experienced significant weight loss in their adult life (70.0 vs 100 %, p = 0.001). Maximum Body Mass Index (BMI) and initial weight loss (%) were similar in both groups, however the digital group reported significantly greater weight loss maintenance (86.5 vs 43.8 % of the initial weight loss, p = 0.008). More persons in the digital group reported to have achieved their current weight by linear weight loss (rapid or not) vs. through a series of weight loss cycles (p = 0.008).
Conclusion:
The different modes of engagement (digital vs. paper) may target different people. Traditional means of questionnaire completion were more appealing in individuals with less successful weight loss efforts. These preliminary results suggest that offering both online and paper versions of registry questionnaires may support data collection in a broader population demographic.
