The best oral presentation winner paper in the International Conference on Advances in Nutrition and Health Communication-2017.

1. mHealth as a Channel for Imparting
Knowledge on the Association
between Obesity and Vitamin D
Insufficiency
DEEPIKA M
PG Scholar
Department of food science and nutrition
Avinashilingam university
mHealth as a Channel for Imparting
Knowledge on the Association between
Obesity and Vitamin D Insufficiency
DEEPIKA. M and C.A. KALPANA
Department of Food Science and Nutrition
Avinashilingam university

2. Introduction
Obesity is a leading preventable cause of
death worldwide
Prevalence of obesity in India is in the range of
2.9%–14.3%
Poor dietary habits with very low consumption of
fruits and vegetables
There is a consistent association between obesity
and vitamin D insufficiency
.

3. Introduction
Cell phones are the most popular mobile device
used in mHealth intervention
Texting is the dominant mode of communication
among teens
Mobile technologies accessible to 95.5 percent of
the world population
Nutrition education platform has been produced in
the form of text messages integrated with mobile
communication.

4. Objectives
To promote mHealth as a channel for imparting
knowledge on the association between obesity and
vitamin D insufficiency.
To impart nutrition education through the mHealth
developed and evaluate the impact of nutrition
education.
mHealth
(text messages)
Nutrition
information
Improvement
of knowledge

5.  Selection of area
 Selection of channel for mHealth
Phase I
 Selection of respondents and collection of phone numbers
 Preparation of content for mHealth
Phase II
 Creation of user account and sender Id in Bulk SMS service
 Framing mHealth messages and sending SMS
Phase III
Methodology

6.  Evaluation of imparted nutrition education- questionnaire
Phase IV
 Analysis and interpretation of data
Methodology

7. Mobile screen shots of mHealth messages

8. mHealth messages read by young
women

9. Evaluation of Nutrition education
through questionnaire

10. Results and Discussion
A questionnaire consisting of multiple choice
questions was administered to the young women
Changes in nutritional knowledge before and after
imparting nutrition education was evaluated
The response of the respondents for mHealth
especially giving education through the bulk SMS
was evaluated.
The 15 framed contents for the mHealth messages
was also evaluated

11. 20%
20%
33%
27%
3
Obesity Vitamin D Methods to reduce obesity
and increase vitamin D
availability
Obesity and
vitamin D
insufficiency
relationship
3 4 5
Details on the framed contents for mHealth

12. Supporting mHealth (bulk SMS) as a
channel for nutrition education.
Criteria
Yes
208
Supporting status of the respondents for the
bulk SMS as a channel for nutrition education
No
-
100%

13. Whether the contents were
easy to follow?
Criteria
Yes
Yes
Impact of the framed contents for the mHealth
messages
Percentage
96.1
Response Number
200
No 3.98
Was it useful?
Yes 100208
No --
Suggestions to modify the
content
Yes 4.329
No 95.68199

14. Was it technical?
Criteria
Yes
Yes
Impact of the framed contents for the mHealth
messages
Percentage
13.46
Response Number
28
No 86.54180
Have you understood the
relationship between obesity
and vitamin D insufficiency?
Yes 96.1200
No 3.98

15. Key findings
96.1% of the respondents understood the relationship between
obesity and vitamin D insufficiency
Nutrition education through mHealth messages had improved
the nutritional knowledge on the association between obesity
and vitamin D insufficiency among selected young women.
The findings from this study provide a Mobile phone based
primary intervention strategy to increase awareness and
promote healthy lifestyles in college going young women.
Thus preventing the problem of obesity related vitamin D
insufficiency from becoming more widespread.

16. CONCLUSION
Hence it can be concluded that the advances in nutrition
communication –the mHealth, improved the nutrition knowledge
on the association between obesity and vitamin D insufficiency.