What is the INDDEX24 Mobile App?
The INDDEX24 Mobile App is an efficient, effective, and flexible solution for conducting accurate, quantitative 24-hour dietary recall surveys in low- and middle-income countries that can provide timely, actionable results. This validated tool gives researchers a faster and more streamlined way to conduct individual-level dietary surveys using the multiple-pass 24-hour recall method.
We have developed the INDDEX24 Mobile App to provide a standarized yet customizable approach for conducting 24-hour dietary recall survey using a mobile application. The INDDEX24 Mobile App was developed on CommCare, an open-source application development platform created and managed by Dimagi, Inc. Customization is made possible through integration with context-specific dietary reference data maintained in the Global Food Matters Database.
Some highlights of the INDDEX24 Mobile App include:
- Interviewer-administered survey application can run on any Android device
- Data can be collected and stored offline to allow for data collection in remote areas with limited connectivity
- Captures quantitative 24-hour dietary recall data using the multiple pass method (standard four passes)
- Additional survey modules can be designed in CommCare HQ and integrated with the 24-hour dietary recall
- Survey data are automatically uploaded to secure, password protected, encrypted, HIPAA-certified CommCare HQ server upon connection to internet
- Survey administrators and supervisors may access, monitor, and export all survey data through a dedicated project space on the CommCare HQ website
- Application text is readily available in English, French, Mandarin, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Up to 4 languages can be used simultaneously in the application, one of which must be English. Additional languages can be added as needed
What makes the INDDEX24 Mobile App particularly efficient, effective, and flexible?
- Guides enumerators and respondents through a 24-hour dietary recall in a structured manner
- Contains modifiable instructions to permit adjustments to the interview process
- Allows for real time data monitoring and checking by on-site supervisors and remote data managers
- Provides instant calorie count for foods consumed as a quick data quality check
- Can be linked to context-specific dietary reference data defined by the researchers in the Global Food Matters Database (e.g., food list, standard recipes and ingredients, portion conversion factors, and food descriptors for probes)
- Time of consumption can be captured with a context-specific approach: time blocks, exact time, or both
- Easy to create and link additional modules (e.g. socio-demographic, anthropometric)
- Allows for repeat recalls to be linked to an individual respondent to enable “usual intake” calculations
- Multiple languages can easily be used in each survey
The INDDEX24 Mobile App is set up and managed through two complementary components: 1) the mobile app itself, which is loaded onto a tablet or other Android device and used for data collection, and 2) CommCare HQ, the web-based survey management interface used for mobile app set up, management and reporting. The INDDEX24 Mobile App underwent extensive testing over multiple years, including rigorous feasibility and validation studies to compare against traditional pen-and-paper multiple pass 24-hour dietary. Detailed results for the validation and cost studies are forthcoming. A summary brief of results can be found here.
To learn more about the INDDEX24 Mobile App, please watch the demonstration video here: