Modeling and Evaluating Mobile-Based Interventions for Food Intake Behavior Change

Food intake is an important form of health information to observe the current status of personal health, which enables setting healthy eating goals and choosing a better diet. Based on monitoring food intake information, customized mobile interventions can help in advising users to consume a diverse and desirable quantity of healthy foods. However, previous research has not assessed whether mobile interventions enhance healthy eating behavior as an intermediary when determining whether the interventions impact health outcomes. To design mechanisms for behavior change, we need a better understanding of how mobile-based interventions affect users' motivation to change food intake behaviors and lead to healthier behavior. In this proposal, we categorize the prior interventions and behavior change techniques mainly based on three behavioral theories, i.e., control theory, theory of planned behavior, and theory of operant conditioning. Subsequently, the purpose of this thesis is: (1) to model theory-based mobile interventions for managing food intake, and (2) to investigate the impact of these mobile interventions on healthy eating behavior as an intermediary to better health outcomes. To this end, we propose three field experiment designs for future study.