Comparison of Goal Achievement during an Early, Intensive Nutrition Intervention Delivered to People with Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer by Telephone Compared with Mobile Application

This study is aimed at exploring whether the mode of nutrition intervention delivery affected participant goal achievement in a three-arm randomised controlled trial of early and intensive nutrition intervention delivered to upper gastrointestinal cancer patients.METHODS: Newly diagnosed upper gastrointestinal cancer patients were recruited from four tertiary hospitals in Melbourne, Australia. Participants in the intervention groups received a regular nutrition intervention for 18 weeks from an experienced dietitian via telephone or mobile application (app) using behaviour change techniques to assist in goal achievement. Univariate and multiple regression models using STATA determined goal achievement, dose, and frequency of contact between groups. A p value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.RESULTS: The telephone group (n = 38) had 1.99 times greater frequency of contact with the research dietitian (95% CI: 1.67 to 2.36, p < 0.001) and 2.37 times higher frequency of goal achievement (95% CI: 1.1 to 5.11, p = 0.03) compared with the mobile app group (n = 36). The higher dose (RR 0.03) of intervention and more behaviour change techniques employed in the telephone group compared with the mobile app group increased participant goal achievement (95% CI: 0.01 to 0.04, p < 0.001). Discussion. Telephone nutrition intervention delivery led to a higher frequency of goal achievement compared to the mobile app intervention. There was also a higher number of behavio...
Source: International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications - Category: Information Technology Authors: Source Type: research