YOUNGYOU: A Touchscreen-based Application Improves The Elderly’s Knowledge, Attitudes, and Healthy Eating
Keywords:
Application, Touchscreen, Elderly, Healthy diet, Healthy eatingAbstract
Thailand’s elderly population is increasing rapidly and is at higher risk of nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. Improving healthy eating behaviors among this group could delay disease progression and lower severity. At the same time, the use of touchscreen devices is expanding among Thailand’s elderly population, which is an opportunity to develop tools for nutrition education through touchscreen applications. Consequently, this study investigated the effectiveness of the YoungYou application on improving elderly persons’ knowledge, positive attitudes, and healthy eating habits. A 4-week quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design was conducted and comprised three main activities. Initially, the study recruited 56 elderly persons, who met eligibility criteria shown on an electronic poster invitation, i.e., having iOS devices, aged 60-69 years, and able to attend outcome measurement activities. Of these persons, 41 volunteers successfully completed the 4-week intervention. In the study’s first activity, demographic data and pre-test data on knowledge, attitudes, and eating behaviors were collected. Thereafter, the application was installed on participants’ devices and used for 4 weeks. After this period, post-test data on knowledge, attitudes, and eating behaviors were collected. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was performed within-subject differentiation comparisons. The p values of ≤ 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results showed that post-test scores for knowledge, attitudes, and healthy eating behaviors significantly increased (p<0.05). Consumption of rice/starchy foods, vegetables, and meat also increased (p<0.05). Consequently, the YoungYou application shows potential to improve the knowledge, positive attitudes, and healthy eating behaviors of Thailand’s elderly population.
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