A Digital Dietary Assessment Tool for a Multicultural Population (Intake24 Malaysia): Protocol for a Development and...

Area of Science:

• Nutrition Science
• Public Health
• Digital Health

Background:

• Malaysia's multicultural population presents unique challenges for dietary assessment due to diverse food cultures and cuisines.
• Traditional dietary assessment methods can be time-consuming and prone to bias.
• Existing tools like Intake24 require adaptation for local contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the protocol for developing and validating Intake24 Malaysia (Intake24-MY).
• To adapt the Intake24 system for the Malaysian population, considering language, food, and cultural specifics.
• To ensure the tool's accuracy and usability for dietary data collection in Malaysia.

Main Methods:

• Phase 1: System development including translation, local food list creation, portion size estimation methods, and pilot testing.
• Phase 2: Validation studies comparing Intake24-MY against interviewer-led 24-hour dietary recalls (24hDR) and observed intake.
• Utilizing the Bland-Altman method for agreement analysis and questionnaires for usability assessment.

Main Results:

• The study protocol outlines a comprehensive two-phase approach for development and validation.
• Data collection is ongoing, with analysis and results anticipated by 2027.
• Ethical approval has been secured from the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee.

Conclusions:

• Intake24-MY is being developed as a multilingual digital dietary assessment tool tailored for Malaysia.
• The planned validation studies will assess its agreement with traditional methods and its usability.
• Successful implementation of Intake24-MY could significantly enhance dietary data collection efficiency in Malaysia's diverse population.