A PILOT TEST OF ELOG: REAL-TIME MOBILE ENERGY BALANCE RESEARCH SYSTEM

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. A significant challenge for healthcare professionals is the long-term maintenance of a clients healthy body weight. Individuals who succeed in maintaining a healthy body weight are more likely to assume responsibility for self-regulation of their energy balance. Energy balance is the integrated effect of diet, physical activity, and genetics on the growth and body weight of the individual over his/her lifetime. There are no research tools that capture real-time energy balance in an integrated and verifiable manner and which are user-friendly for research participants or weight management clients. This is a pilot study to evaluate the ease of use, by study participants, of a prototype version of an Electronic Energy Balance Log or eLog. eLog is a computer-assisted system to measure and collect, subjectively (electronically recorded food and activity logs) and objectively (weights of foods/beverages consumed and measurement of movement), the energy balance of subjects in real-time. This instrument is not a tool to assist in diagnosis and/or treatment but rather to assess energy intake and expenditure. This prototype is a handheld personal computer (handheld PC) which has been developed with an NCI SBIR Phase I Contract HHSN261200544010C by Princeton Multimedia Technologies Core (PMT). This software company has developed other Bionutrition-related software specific for the GCRC Bionutrition Cores. The testing of this prototype will be carried out by the GCRC Bionutrition Cores of The Ohio State University and the University of Iowa. This pilot study involves 20 (10 per site) male and/or female subjects, ages 18-65, who will be trained to use eLog to collect real-time food intake and physical activity data. The evaluation will assess the usability of: 1)a scale connected to the handheld PC to capture precise food intake records by weighing foods; 2)entering estimated food intake records on the handheld PC, and 3)monitoring physical activity via a digital activity logger 4)(future testing will be include the use of an accelerometer to evaluate an objective measure of movement).