ReviewJMIR mHealth and uHealth2018
Mobile Ecological Momentary Diet Assessment Methods for Behavioral Research: Systematic Review.
Review in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 91 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ecological Momentary Interventions in the Management of Eating Disorders and Obesity: A Systematic Review.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Pooled it
- Understanding health behaviours in context: A systematic review and meta-analysis of ecological momentary assessment studies of five key health behaviours.Health psychology review · 2022Pooled it
- Smartphone-Delivered Ecological Momentary Interventions Based on Ecological Momentary Assessments to Promote Health Behaviors: Systematic Review and Adapted Checklist for Reporting Ecological Momentary Assessment and Intervention Studies.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2021Pooled it
- Compliance With Mobile Ecological Momentary Assessment of Self-Reported Health-Related Behaviors and Psychological Constructs in Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Ecological Momentary Assessment of Diet: Implications and Perspectives for Nutritional Epidemiology.Nutrients · 2019Pooled it
- Trial
- Preliminary Examination of an Innovative mHealth-Based Dietary Fiber Intervention to Improve Outcomes in Young Adults With Prediabetes: Protocol for a Single-Arm Feasibility Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Digital and Technology-Enabled Approaches in Dietary Assessment: Addressing Bias, Error, and Feasibility in Population- and Community-Based Research.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Review
- Exploring Consumers' Situational Snacking Behaviors Using a Mobile App: Longitudinal Cohort Study (FOODLOOP) Among Millennials in the Netherlands.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Article
- Development and usability of a mobile ecological momentary assessment platform for dietary surveillance in the U.S.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2026Article
- The Feasibility of Smartwatch Micro-Ecological Momentary Assessment for Tracking Eating Patterns of Malaysian Children and Adolescents in the South-East Asian Community Observatory Child Health Update 2020: Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Psychological-dietary interactions in chronic disease management: mechanisms and integrated intervention strategies.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Dietary ecological momentary assessments: validation against food diaries and associations with health biomarkers.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- User Preferences for an Image-Assisted Dietary Recall: Qualitative Study Comparing 3 Dietary Assessment Methods.JMIR human factors · 2025Article
- Application of an Ecological Approach to Assessment of Nutrition in School-Aged Children-A Report from the "Biomarkers of Nutrition for Development: Knowledge Indicating Dietary Sufficiency (BOND-KIDS)" Project Working Group 3.The Journal of nutrition · 2025Review
- Completion Rates for Ecological Momentary Assessments of Food Intake During Pregnancy and Post Partum: Descriptive Study.JMIR human factors · 2025Article
- Article
- Identifying Dietary Triggers Among Individuals with Overweight and Obesity: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Article
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundNew methods for assessing diet in research are being developed to address the limitations of traditional dietary assessment methods. Mobile device-assisted ecological momentary diet assessment (mEMDA) is a new dietary assessment method that has not yet been optimized and has the potential to minimize recall biases and participant burden while maximizing ecological validity. There have been limited efforts to characterize the use of mEMDA in behavioral research settings.
objectiveThe aims of this study were to summarize mEMDA protocols used in research to date, to characterize key aspects of these assessment approaches, and to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of mEMDA compared with the traditional dietary assessment methods as well as implications for future mEMDA research.
methodsStudies that used mobile devices and described mEMDA protocols to assess dietary intake were included. Data were extracted according to Preferred Reporting of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and Cochrane guidelines and then synthesized narratively.
resultsThe review included 20 studies with unique mEMDA protocols. Of these, 50% (10/20) used participant-initiated reports of intake at eating events (event-contingent mEMDA), and 50% (10/20) used researcher-initiated prompts requesting that participants report recent dietary intake (signal-contingent mEMDA). A majority of the study protocols (60%, 12/20) enabled participants to use mobile phones to report dietary data. Event-contingent mEMDA protocols most commonly assessed diet in real time, used dietary records for data collection (60%, 6/10), and provided estimates of energy and nutrient intake (60%, 6/10). All signal-contingent mEMDA protocols used a near real-time recall approach with unannounced (ie, random) abbreviated diet surveys. Most signal-contingent protocols (70%, 7/10) assessed the frequency with which (targeted) foods or food groups were consumed. Relatively few (30%, 6/20) studies compared mEMDA with the traditional dietary assessment methods.
conclusionsThis review demonstrates that mEMDA has the potential to reduce participant burden and recall bias, thus advancing the field beyond current dietary assessment methods while maximizing ecological validity.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.