Role of Nutrition Informatics in Preventing and Managing Obesity

Nutrition Informatics combines information technology and nutrition science to help analyze data for better results. It is a helpful tool for healthcare workers to gain insights based on dietary trends and health conditions using wearables and electronic health records. Integrating the tools helps collect, interpret, and analyze the data based on an individual’s medical history and health conditions. Nutrition informatics helps gain insights and curate customized data of an individual.

Obesity is a significant public health issue affecting millions of people around the world. Nutrition informatics has been introduced as a powerful tool to combat the problem. Preventing obesity is essential to improving an individual’s lifestyle and providing a better quality of life. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 43% of adults above 18 were overweight in 2022. Worldwide, the problem of obesity has doubled since 1990, and adolescent obesity has quadrupled.

Dietary assessment and data collection are often time-consuming and less effective due to a lack of personalized data. However, nutrition informatics helps provide real-time data and insights based on an individual’s medical history, enhancing the effectiveness of obesity prevention.

Analytics of Data to Create Tailored Diet Plans

Personalization of diet plans is one of the significant advantages of nutrition informatics. With the help of data analysis, nutritionists or health coaches can understand the dietary patterns leading to obesity. Therefore, a personalized diet plan can be curated based on the needs, health conditions, and individual preferences, leading to optimum results. This tool can aid in understanding high-risk foods and suggest healthier alternatives with precise recommendations for effective weight management.

For instance, machine learning algorithms can identify the foods a person is most likely to gain weight from, enabling more specialized nutritional recommendations.

Wearable Devices

Smartwatches and fitness trackers are two examples of wearable technology useful for monitoring physical activity, sleeping habits, total step count, calorie intake, and eating habits. If a wearable gadget notices a decline in physical activity, it might encourage the user to exercise more, which can help them avoid gaining weight.

Importance of Wearable Devices in Weight Management

• Real-time feedback motivates the contact to proceed towards the goal. For example, a reminder to complete the 1000 steps motivates a person to accomplish it before the day ends.
• Personalized Recommendations—Nutrition Informatics makes it easier to analyze data and provide real-time insights, which helps healthcare workers develop customized recommendations for individuals.
• Behavioral Modification- Feedback provided by these wearable devices helps immediately impact their action. For example- If a high-calorie meal is tracked, the wearables suggest physical activity accordingly to burn the extra calories

Utilizing Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) contain patient records, medical history, and dietary preferences. They are very useful tools for managing obesity. Similarly, nutrition informatics comes into place here, where data is analyzed to understand obesity risk and create personalized treatment plans.

EHRs, for instance, can monitor patients’ development over time and modify exercise and food suggestions as necessary to guarantee effective weight management.

Here are some digital intervention initiatives designed by Dr. Ashish Joshi under SMAART Lab and implemented through FHTS that contribute to educating the population about obesity, its consequences, and self-management.

1. Swasthya Pahal– an interactive platform for self-management of obesity
2. Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL)- text message-based program for 3 months
3. Sangyan Podcast on overweight and obesity

Conclusion

Nutrition informatics plays a significant role in combating obesity by providing a toolkit to help analyze the data with the help of wearables, EHRs, and data analytics to create personalized results. It helps curate tailored diet plans based on the recommendations and preferences of an individual, which leads to improved health choices and lifestyles. Therefore, nutrition informatics provides detailed insights for healthcare professionals, which can help them make informed decisions that can lead to improved lifestyles and better weight management. Adopting nutrition informatics in today’s world is essential as it makes it easy to analyze and understand the growing obesity epidemic. It ensures that sustainable health outcomes are obtained.

References

• Delichatsios, H. K., & Beasley, J. M. (2019). Nutrition informatics: A brief review of the utilization of technology in nutrition practice.?Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 119(7), 1168-1173.
• Dobbie, L. J., Tahrani, A., Alam, U., James, J., Wilding, J., & Cuthbertson, D. J. (2021b). Exercise in Obesity—the Role of Technology in Health Services: Can This Approach Work? Current Obesity Reports, 11(3). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13679-021-00461-x
• Thomas, J. G., Bond, D. S., & Raynor, H. A. (2019). Wearable technology for weight loss: A randomized controlled trial.?Obesity, 27(4), 594-602.
• DeShazo, J., & Kim, S. S. (2019). Electronic health records and the dietitian: The role of nutrition informatics.?Topics in Clinical Nutrition, 34(1), 57-65.
• World Health Organization. “Obesity and Overweight.” World Health Organization, 1 Mar. 2024, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight.

Written by

Baani Chawla?1, Nikita Arya 2, ?Sakshi 3

1. v-INSPIRE intern at the Foundation of Healthcare Technologies Society
2. Nutrition Researcher at the Foundation of Healthcare Technologies Society
3. Nutrition Researcher at the Foundation of Healthcare Technologies Society