title: A novel mobile phone application to assess nutrition environment measures in low- and middle-income countries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Consumer nutrition environment measures are important to understanding the food environment, which affects individual dietary intake. A nutrition environment measures survey for supermarkets (NEMS-S) has been designed on paper for use in Guatemala. However, a paper survey is not an inconspicuous data collection method.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To design, pilot test, and validate the Guatemala NEMS-S in the form of a mobile phone application (mobile app).
  
  
  METHODS
  CommCare, a free and open-source software application, was used to design the NEMS-S for Guatemala in the form of a mobile app. Two raters tested the mobile app in a single Guatemalan supermarket. Both the interrater and the test-retest reliability of the mobile app were determined using percent agreement and Cohen's kappa score and compared with the interrater and test-retest reliability of the paper version.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Interrater reliability was very high between the paper survey and the mobile app (Cohen's kappa > 0.90). Test-retest reliability ranged from kappa 0.78 to 0.91. Between two certified NEMS-S raters, survey completion time using the mobile app was 5 minutes less than that with the paper form (35 vs. 40 minutes).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The NEMS-S mobile app provides for more rapid data collection, with equivalent reliability and validity to the NEMS-S paper version, with advantages over a paper-based survey of multiple language capability and concomitant data entry.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kanter
authors.forename: Jeniece
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Alvey
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fuentes
mesh_terms: D040421:Cell Phone; D003625:Data Collection / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D004777:Environment; D005502:Food; D006166:Guatemala; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D009749:Nutrition Surveys / Q000379:methods*; D009753:Nutritive Value; D010209:Paper; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012984:Software