title: Development and Evaluation of an iPad App for Measuring the Cost of a Nutritious Diet.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Monitoring food costs informs governments of the affordability of healthy diets. Many countries have adopted a standardized healthy food basket. The Victorian Healthy Food Basket contains 44 food items necessary to meet the nutritional requirements of four different Australian family types for a fortnight.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to describe the development of a new iPad app as core to the implementation of the Victorian Healthy Food Basket. The app significantly automates the data collection. We evaluate if the new technology enhanced the quality and efficacy of the research.
  
  
  METHODS
  Time taken for data collection and entry was recorded. Semi-structured evaluative interviews were conducted with five field workers during the pilot of the iPad app. Field workers were familiar with previous manual data collection methods. Qualitative process evaluation data was summarized against key evaluation questions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Field workers reported that using the iPad for data collection resulted in increased data accuracy, time savings, and efficient data management, and was preferred over manual collection.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Portable digital devices may be considered to improve and extend data collection in the field of food cost monitoring.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Monash University, Notting Hill, Australia. claire.palermo@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Claire
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9423-5067
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Palermo
authors.forename: Dharani
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5095-7287
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Perera-Schulz
authors.forename: Anitha
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3028-4959
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kannan
authors.forename: Helen
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1992-1649
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Truby
authors.forename: Alan
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5914-1084
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shiell
authors.forename: Sindhu
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5598-5319
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Emilda
authors.forename: Steve
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0368-7341
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Quenette
keywords: food cost; healthy food; iPad; portable digital device