(P13-040-23) Clinician Needs and Preference Assessment for Oncology Mobile Health Apps

Objectives: Mobile health (mHealth) apps can assist dietitians with providing personalized care among cancer patients and survivors. Thus, we investigated the needs and preferences of oncology dietitians prior to developing a cancer-related mHealth app with diet tracking features.

Methods: A Qualtrics online survey was distributed among oncology dietitians in February 2023 through the Oncology Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group, LinkedIn, and a dietitian subreddit. Inclusion criteria included incomplete surveys, nonsensical responses, or evidence of ballot stuffing. The survey consisted of three domains: 1) demographic information, current app practices (n = 7), 2) interests in and beliefs about mobile nutrition apps (n= 5), and 3) app feature preferences (n = 4). Descriptive analyses were performed to determine the mean ± standard deviation and count (sample %).

Results: Of the 50 participants enrolled in the study, 88% (n = 44) worked in an outpatient setting and had practiced an average of 13.8 ± 8.4 years. Dietitians recommended publicly available mHealth apps to ~1/3 of cancer patients and/or survivors, with 44% using app data to set patients’ nutrition goals. Most dietitians somewhat or strongly agreed that they were interested in using mHealth apps to facilitate discussions about diet (n=45, 90%) and to use as a nutrition source (n=43, 86%), while believing that an app will improve their productivity and performance (n=43, 86%). Notably, 84% felt that current apps were not tailored for the cancer population. Dietitians were mostly interested in app features that delivered behavior change prompts, increased self-monitoring of dietary habits, and provided diet data to facilitate conversations about diet quality and energy needs (range % = 72-82%). Dietitians also reported strongly preferring data about macronutrient intake (n=31, 62%) and gastrointestinal symptoms (n=40, 80%).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that oncology dietitians are interested in using a cancer-specific mHealth app to support energy and macronutrient intake goals, while monitoring for gastrointestinal symptoms. Future studies with larger sample sizes will be needed to confirm these findings.

Funding Sources: This study was supported by the ASN UDRF Award. AWL is partly funded by NIDDK.