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'Boden Food Plate': Novel Interactive Web-based Method for the Assessment of Dietary Intake
Published on: September 18, 2018
Ontology-based dietary recommendation system for Chinese children and adolescents: development and a pilot validation
Zhiyu Zhang1, Dongdong Xu1, Jiye An1
1College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Background:
Dietary imbalances among Chinese children and adolescents are prevalent, but most recommender systems are adult-oriented and not adapted to Chinese dietary patterns or school-family meal contexts. This study aims to developed and evaluated an ontology-based dietary recommendation system for Chinese children and adolescents to improve their dietary status.
Methods:
An ontology knowledge base was constructed from dietary guidelines, expert knowledge, and food and meal data. A multi-criteria decision framework generated feasible meal plans, optimized portion sizes with a genetic algorithm, and selected solutions that promote food diversity. We conducted a preliminary evaluation of the system in two pilot settings: (1) a group-level experiment using 30 days of school lunch data from a primary school, and (2) an individual-level experiment using 30 days of dietary records and health check-up data from 30 middle school students. Diet quality was assessed using the Chinese Children Dietary Index (CCDI), nutrient adequacy rates, and food-group diversity.
Results:
In the group experiment, system-recommended lunches achieved a significantly higher average CCDI score (117.39 ± 6.61) than actual school lunches (103.41 ± 9.44, p < 0.001). In the individual experiment, recommended full-day meals scored higher in CCDI (110.91 ± 9.70) compared with self-selected diets (90.61 ± 10.77, p < 0.001). Across both settings, the system reduced deficiencies in vegetables, fruits, and aquatic products with consistent improvements in nutrient adequacy and food diversity, while maintaining alignment with dietary guidelines.
Conclusion:
To the best of our knowledge, this study presents the first ontology-driven dietary recommendation system tailored for Chinese children and adolescents. By integrating structured knowledge representation with advanced decision-making algorithms, the system demonstrates promising improvements in dietary quality, nutritional balance, and food diversity across both school and family scenarios. These findings highlight the system's potential as a practical tool for promoting healthy eating behaviors, and informing nutrition education.
