The COVID-19 pandemic affects eating habits, diet quality and physical activity differently among individuals; it is unclear how these behaviours will evolve as the pandemic continues. In this observational study, dietary intake will be frequently collected using an artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced mobile application combined with real-time analysis, and lifestyle behaviours from online questionnaires, to provide timely, relevant data for public health decision making.
A thousand nine hundred and twenty adult men and women aged 18 years and older, living in the
community and owning a smartphone or tablet, will be recruited all over Canada. Rapid
recruitment will be achieved using social media and professional networks. All data will be
collected online to allow a broad reach even in remote regions. Self-reported eating habits,
physical activity, sleep, alcohol consumption, anxiety and depression data will be collected
using validated questionnaires on an online survey platform, and dietary intake data using
the mobile application Keenoa. With the application, participants take pictures of their
meals, which are analyzed and accessible to researchers in real-time, providing comprehensive
data on nutrient and food intake, and hence patterns and diet quality. Diet will be tracked
for a full week at study entrance and repeated 6 times during a year, and once one year
later, along with follow-up questionnaires on lifestyle behaviours.
The main study objectives are 1) to evaluate how eating habits, diet quality and related
lifestyle behaviours of Canadian adults are impacted by confinement phases of the pandemic
over one year; and 2) determine the association between eating behaviours and diet quality
with contextual socio-demographic, education, emotional and health factors, and identify
emerging explanatory factors as clusters.
Other: Diet tracking and survey
Mobile AI-based food diary application and online questionnaires
Inclusion Criteria:
- Men and women aged 18 years and over, living in Canada
- Owning a smartphone and having access to internet
- Able to read and understand English or French
Exclusion Criteria:
- Any active and uncontrolled acute disease that interferes with usual food intake
- Being hospitalized
- Pregnancy or lactation
McGill University - School of Human Nutrition
Montréal, Quebec, Canada