@Article{info:doi/10.2196/25794,
author="Chia, Airu
and Chew, Muhammad Naeem Jia Sheng
and Tan, Sarah Yi Xuan
and Chan, Mei Jun
and T Colega, Marjorelee
and Toh, Jia Ying
and Natarajan, Padmapriya
and Lan{\c{c}}a, Carla
and Shek, Lynette P
and Saw, Seang-Mei
and M{\"u}ller-Riemenschneider, Falk
and Chong, Mary Foong-Fong",
title="A Web-Based Time-Use Application to Assess Diet and Movement Behavior in Asian Schoolchildren: Development and Usability Study of My E-Diary for Activities and Lifestyle (MEDAL)",
journal="J Med Internet Res",
year="2021",
month="Jun",
day="9",
volume="23",
number="6",
pages="e25794",
keywords="time use; web-based; diet; movement behaviors; usability; schoolchildren",
abstract="Background: Web-based time-use diaries for schoolchildren are limited, and existing studies focus mostly on capturing physical activities and sedentary behaviors but less comprehensively on dietary behaviors. Objective: This study aims to describe the development of My E-Diary for Activities and Lifestyle (MEDAL)---a self-administered, web-based time-use application to assess diet and movement behavior---and to evaluate its usability in schoolchildren in Singapore. Methods: MEDAL was developed through formative research and an iterative user-centric design approach involving small groups of schoolchildren (ranging from n=5 to n=15, aged 7-13 years). To test the usability, children aged 10-11 years were recruited from 2 primary schools in Singapore to complete MEDAL for 2 weekdays and 2 weekend days and complete a 10-item usability questionnaire. Results: The development process revealed that younger children (aged <9 years) were less able to complete MEDAL independently. Of the 204 participants (118/204, 57.8{\%} boys, and 31/201, 15.4{\%} overweight) in the usability study, 57.8{\%} (118/204) completed 3 to 4 days of recording, whereas the rest recorded for 2 days or less. The median time taken to complete MEDAL was 14.2 minutes per day. The majority of participants agreed that instructions were clear (193/203, 95.1{\%}), that MEDAL was easy to use (173/203, 85.2{\%}), that they liked the application (172/202, 85.1{\%}), and that they preferred recording their activities on the web than on paper (167/202, 82.7{\%}). Among all the factors evaluated, recording for 4 days was the least satisfactory component reported. Compared with boys, girls reported better recall ability and agreed that the time spent on completing 1-day entry was appropriate. Conclusions: MEDAL appears to be a feasible application to capture diet and movement behaviors in children aged 10-12 years, particularly in the Asian context. Some gender differences in usability performance were observed, but the majority of the participants had a positive experience using MEDAL. The validation of the data collected through the application is in progress. ",
issn="1438-8871",
doi="10.2196/25794",
url="https://www.jmir.org/2021/6/e25794",
url="https://doi.org/10.2196/25794",
url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34106084"
}