SBIR-STTR Award

This proposal is for phase I development of the Graphical Food Frequency System (GraFFS), a comprehensive system for collecting data on dietary behavior, measuring nutrient intake and food use patterns, and generating "tailored" behavioral feedback. The goals are to improve dietary assessment in studies on diet and cancer, and to make it cost-effective and feasible to include "tailored" behavior feedback based on comprehensive dietary assessment as a component of cancer control interventions. The complete GraFFS will: (a) use a graphical, touch-screen, food frequency questionnaire (FFQ)-based method for data collection; (b) generate reports on nutrient intake and food use patterns; and (c) generate "tailored" behavioral feedback. Innovations include: (a) computer-aided self-interview technology that will significantly improve FFQ-based dietary assessment; (b) system customizability, to allow flexibility to capture regional/ethnic food patterns, use different languages, and focus on specific nutrients and food components; and (c) sophisticated and validated methods for tailoring behavioral feedback. Phase I development includes a fully-functional system for data collection, nutrient analysis and a behavioral feedback, and a formal evaluation to compare nutrient intake data generated from the GraFFS to those from a paper-form FFQ. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: There are immediate comercialization possibilities for GraFFS, include both research and clinical applications. Research scientists need improved and flexible FFQ-based dietary assessment. Much larger markets exist for clinical nutritionists, who can use the GraFFS to support dietary evaluation and counseling, and for HMOs, physicians, and helath promotion programs wishing to offer a low-cost, self-help dietary intervention tool.

This proposal is for Phase II development of the Graphical Food Frequency System (GraFFS), a comprehensive system for collecting data on dietary behavior and food use patterns, estimating nutrient intake, and delivering an interactive dietary change intervention. GraFFS is being developed to improve dietary assessment in studies on diet and cancer, and to make it cost-effective and feasible to include "tailored" behavior feedback based on comprehensive dietary assessment as a component of both clinical and population-based cancer control interventions. The complete GraFFS will: (a) use a graphical, touch-screen, food frequency questionnaire (FFQ)-based method for data collection; (b) generate reports on nutrient intake and food use patterns suitable for a variety of clinical counseling and research applications; and (c) deliver a theory-based, interactive behavioral intervention that is tailored to the respondent's dietary patterns and dietary goals. Innovations include: (a) computer-aided self-interview technology that will significantly improve the quality of FFQ-based dietary assessment; (b) system customizability, to allow flexibility to capture regional/ethnic food patterns, use different languages and font sizes, and focus on specific nutrients and food components; and (c) sophisticated and validated methods for tailoring behavioral feedback that is delivered as an interactive intervention. Phase II work will complete the system for data collection, nutrient analysis and behavioral intervention, which will be followed by a validation study to examine the inter-method reliability of GraFFS vs. multiple 24-hour recalls and a pilot study to examine the feasibility and potential efficacy of GraFFS to promote healthful dietary change among survivors of prostate, colorectal, and breast cancers. This proposal will complete the development and preliminary evaluation of the Graphical Food Frequency System (GraFFS), a comprehensive system for collecting data on dietary behavior and food use patterns, estimating nutrient intake, and delivering an interactive dietary change intervention. GraFFS is being developed to improve dietary assessment in studies on diet and cancer, and to make it cost-effective and feasible to include "tailored" behavior feedback based on comprehensive dietary assessment as a component of both clinical and population-based cancer control interventions. GraFFS is designed as an easily customizable system, which can run in different languages, target ethnically- and regionally-specific dietary patterns, and deliver behavior feedback relevant to a variety of dietary change goals