A Scoping Review: to Analyze Food Consumption Apps (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Obesity is a growing health problem and is associated with several diseases and health issues, including type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Technological advancements have led to the development of supportive digital tools to facilitate weight management. Today, new electronic dietary assessment methods, such as food consumption Apps, are commonly used to improve the daily monitoring of dietary intake. OBJECTIVE To identify the scope of prominent food consumption mobile Apps across two commercial App stores (Apple iOS and Google Play) in Saudi Arabia and determine the main features of Apps systematically METHODS An electronic search was conducted to collect Apps relevant to food consumption across two major commercial App stores for the iPhone operating systems (Apple iOS) and the Android (Google Play). First, each store was searched by two reviewers independently using a series of nine keywords. Then, the Apps were screened to determine the main features. RESULTS A total of 99 Apps were included, of which 41 (41%) were from the iOS store, and 58 (59%) were from the Android store. Approximately 52% of Apps were rated “4.5 or less”, and 48% of Apps were rated “4.6 and above”. Most Apps offered more than one language, of which 81% provided 1 to 6 languages, and only 10.1% of Apps offered 7 to 12 languages. The highest number of Apps were found when searching the keyword “nutrition” 26.3%, followed by “weight” 21.2 %. We identified a total of 23 features, 29% of Apps had 13 to 18 features, 27% of Apps had 7 to 12 features, and 23% of Apps had 19+ features. In contrast, 18.2% of Apps had 1 to 6 features. CONCLUSIONS This scoping review identified 99 mobile Apps related to individual food consumption in two operating systems (iOS and Android). Based on the findings of this review, we recommend that food consumption mobile Apps should focus on features such as entering food by picture, entering food by Barcode scanning, food composition tables, learning from experts and coaches, and tracking of micro-nutrients such as vitamins to attract more users. In addition, developers, researchers, and physicians can collaborate to address health-related needs in the best way possible.