THE USE OF SMARTPHONE DIET APPS AMONG SPORTS DIETITIANS: A SURVEY IN FIVE COUNTRIES

There are thousands of diet applications (apps) now available on smartphones. Sports dietetics is a field that may benefit from the use of diet apps, by helping athletes track their macronutrient intake. The aims of the study were to assess the prevalence and perception of smartphone diet app use by sports dietitians. A 27-item online survey was developed and sent to 1709 sports dietitians from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, who were surveyed between 22 June and 11 November 2012. We surveyed registered sports dietitians who were members of Sports Dietetics-USA, Sports Dietitians Australia, Sports Dietitians United Kingdom, Dietitians of Canada, High Performance Sport New Zealand, or New Zealand Rugby Union. Follow up requests were sent three times to encourage response. The questionnaire had a response rate of 10.3% (180/1709). Four respondents were excluded from analysis because they were dietetic students and were not yet working. Of the 176 eligible respondents to the questionnaire, 32.4% (n = 57/176) used diet apps with clients in sports dietetics. Twenty-eight different diet apps were used with 56.1% (32/57) of respondents using MyFitnessPal. Diet app users had a positive perception of diet apps, with the majority of respondents viewing diet apps as 'better' (25/53, 47.2%) or 'equivalent' (22/53, 41.5%) when compared with traditional dietary assessment methods, such as paper diet records. As the adoption of smartphones increases and sophistication of the software improves, diet apps will grow in importance and become a valuable tool in the dietetic profession. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]