Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jul 16, 2019
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 19, 2019 - Sep 13, 2019
Date Accepted: Jan 26, 2020
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
A Customized Nutrient-Profiling Approach Lowers Glyecemic-A1C for Type-2 diabetics: A Quasi-Experimental Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Current dietary management approaches are mostly calorie-counter and diet-tracker tools that draw our attention away from the nutritional value of our food. To improve individuals’ dietary behavior, and primarily type-2 diabetics, we need a simple technique to increase their understanding of the nutritional content of their food.
Objective:
To this end we designed, developed and evaluated a customized nutrient profiling tool that we call EasyNutrition. EasyNutrition introduces the new concept of Nutrient Profiling (NuVal), by applying the Intelligent Nutrition Engine, an algorithm we developed for ranking different food recipes based on the their nutritional value. The study aims to investigates the efficacy of EasyNutrition for type-2 diabetics in lowering their glycemic-A1C and improving their dietary habits.
Methods:
We evaluated the utility of EasyNutrition through the lenses of Design-Science in three sequential stages. This paper elaborates on the third stage to investigate Easy Nutrition efficacy in managing type-2 diabetes. A quasi-experimental study was conducted in a diabetes treatment center (n=28). The intervention group utilized EasyNutrition over three months, while participants in the control group utilized the standard-of-care provided by the center. Dietary habits and glycemic-A1C were measured in order to capture any change before and after experimenting with Easy Nutrition.
Results:
The intervention group (n = 9) exhibited a statistically significant change between the pre-and post-exposure results of their A1C; t (9) = 2.427, p = .041. Their A1C has dropped from 8.13 to 6.72. This provides a preliminary evidence of the efficacy of using a customized nutrient-profiling app in reducing glycemic-A1C for type-2 diabetics.
Conclusions:
This study adds to the evidence base that nutrient profiling strategy may be a modern adjunct to diabetes dietary management. In conjunction with reliable dietary education provided by a registered dietician, EasyNutrition may have some beneficial effects to improve the dietary habits of type-2 diabetics.
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Copyright
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