MealLogger is being used by the University of Helsinki in a research project called GloCal, which aims to develop new approaches to reduce infant mortality in developing countries. The researchers use MealLogger to help document and analyze the diets of infants and young children in India.
- We are going to monitor about 80 mothers in four villages and will use traditional research tools and MealLogger to document the diets of their children. The pictures combined with textual descriptions will help us researchers to really see, what the children are eating, the nutritional value of their meals and where improvements could be made, project researcher Marianne Prasad from the University of Helsinki says.
High infant mortality is one of India’s largest challenges. Malnutrition especially during the first two years of the child’s life has a negative impact on a child’s development and ultimately survival.
The aim of the GloCal project is to develop new mobile nutrition counseling services. In the beginning, the goal is to use mobile applications and solutions to guide and advice mothers on how to feed their children and to provide health care workers information about the nutritional needs of infants and the importance of nutrition to overall health. In the long term, the goal of the project is to develop comprehensive mobile children’s health services that benefit both mothers and health care workers.
The pilot phase of the project will last for two years. Partners include the Tampere University of Technology, Aalto University, Nokia, Datafisher and several NGOs. The first field research phase in India will start in October 2011.
- It will be very interesting to be able to test new technology in the field of nutritional research, the leader of the research project, Professor of Nutrition Physiology Marja Mutanen, from the University of Helsinki says.
- In addition to using traditional nutrition analysis software, with MealLogger we have a have a chance to try something new. I believe the visual dimension that MealLogger adds to our data will help us researchers get an even more accurate picture of the diets of the participating children, Marianne Prasad says.
For further information
GloCal reseach project: Project Researcher Marianne Prasad, tel. +358 50 318 3935 ,
mail: marianne.prasad[a]helsinki.fi
MealLogger: CEO Michael Quarshie, tel. +358 50 327 8883,
mail: michael[a]wellnessfoundry.com
About the University of Helsinki
About the Tampere University of Technology
About Aalto University
About Nokia
About Datafisher
