O’Meara, Lydia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0670-5322, Wellard, Kate, Nambooze, Joweria, Ongora, Patrick, Dominguez-Salas, Paula ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8753-4221 and Ferguson, Elaine (2026) A novel automated participant-recorded dietary data collection method using low-cost mobile phones and interactive voice response with low-literacy women: a validation study in rural Uganda. Current Developments in Nutrition, 10 (5):107678. ISSN 2475-2991 (Online) (doi:10.1016/j.cdnut.2026.107678)

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Abstract

Background: Dietary data gaps limit the design of effective food policies and programs in low- and middle-income countries. Automated mobile phone-based tools offer an opportunity to fill data gaps using less resources compared with face-to-face methods, especially for high-frequency dietary quality monitoring in resource-constrained environments.
Objectives: This study assessed the validity of automated participant-recorded dietary data via interactive voice response (IVR) on basic mobile phones to assess dietary quality among rural women in a sub-Saharan African context, against same-day gold standard observed weighed food records.
Methods: Automated IVR collected list-based recalls of food groups consumed in the last 24 h using yes or no push-button response from 156 randomly selected women in rural Northern Uganda (wet season). Inter-method agreement was assessed by comparing mean women’s dietary diversity scores (WDDS) using Weighted Cohen’s kappa, Bland–Altman plots, and Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Agreement in percentage achieving minimum dietary diversity scores for women (MDD-W) and consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages was tested using Cohen’s kappa and McNemar’s test.
Results: Most women (74.4%) completed the IVR, with completion associated with better network coverage and prior positive mobile phone experience. Compared with the weighed food records, agreement for the IVR was moderate for MDD-W (21.6% compared with 17.2%; kappa = 0.48), fair for mean WDDS (3.3 compared with 3.5; weighted kappa = 0.39), and moderate for unhealthy food (34.5% compared with 23.3%; kappa = 0.44) and beverage consumption (32.8% compared with 31.9%; kappa = 0.43).
Conclusions: This study highlights the potential of collecting data from low-literate women in rural resource-scarce settings using IVR via basic mobile phones to estimate population-level MDD-W, WDDS, and percentage consuming unhealthy foods and beverages. Given the need for participant training, IVR may be best suited to high-frequency monitoring of sentinel groups across time. Further refinement of the IVR may improve food group reporting, reducing trade-offs between operational simplicity and accuracy. With appropriate adaptation, we expect this method is generalizable to other settings.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	validation, inter-method accuracy and agreement, information and communication technology, dietary data collection and assessment, women of reproductive age, agriculture- and fisheries-dependent households, sub-Saharan Africa
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HA Statistics S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Centre for Food Systems Research Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Centre for Food Systems Research > Food Systems & Nutrition
Last Modified:	15 May 2026 09:55
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/53415

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