Mobile Apps to Support Healthy Family Food Provision: Systematic Assessment of Popular, Commercially Available Apps

Abstract

Recipe and recipe manager apps, meal planning apps, and family organizers with integrated meal planning and shopping lists scored well for functionality and incorporated behavioral support features that could be used to address barriers to healthy food provision, although features were focused on planning behaviors. Future apps should combine a range of features such as meal planners, shopping lists, simple recipes, reminders and prompts, and food ordering to reduce the burden of the food provision pathway and incorporate a range of BCTs to maximize behavior change potential. Researchers and developers should consider features and content that improve the engagement quality of such apps.