TABLE 1.

Capabilities of traditional versus mobile-based nutrition research and intervention

	Traditional	Mobile-based
Assessment method	Paper and pencil or interview	Cell-phone application
Communication	Researchers	Participant, researchers, health care providers
Goals	Research (estimate intake, dietary adherence, link to health)	Research and individualized health monitoring
Assessment capability	Self-reported diet and lifestyle behaviors, environmental factors, times	Image-based and automated capture of diet and lifestyle behaviors, health, environmental factors, timestamped
Dietary assessment user burden	Up to 45 min per dietary assessment	Potential for quick image capture with machine learning from user input
Time to process and use data	Weeks to months	Potentially real time
Dietary assessment accuracy	Up to 30% error and estimation difficulty	Similar or better than 30% error, limited estimation with image capture
Researcher burden	Time consuming, erroneous data processing and transfer	Limited time, potential for automated processing
Interventions	Resource-intensive, often involve face-to-face or phone contact	Automated, electronically delivered, potential automated reminders, and compliance monitoring