BACKGROUND

Nutrition plays a critical role in achieving healthy ageing. Good nutrition is needed to build robust immune systems, decrease risk of non-communicable diseases, and increase longevity (World Health Organization (WHO), n.d.). The physiological changes that often accompany older age may be detrimental to nutritional status (WHO, 2015). For example, older people often have a decreased sense of taste or smell which leads to decreased appetite. Poor oral health could interfere with chewing and impaired gastric acid secretion may affect the absorption of certain nutrients (WHO, 2015). In China, 12.6 % of adults above the age of 60- that is approximately 20 million older people - is malnourished (Wei et al., 2018).

Recent technological advances offer potential solutions to support nutritional health behaviour change in older people. For example, computer vision-based smartphone applications can enable the detection of food from images for nutrition monitoring. However, as many digital platforms, nutrition coaching digital solutions are not designed with older people in mind. Evidence is missing for the effectiveness of similar digital interventions for this demographic. Additionally, evidence on behaviour change prompted by social nudges is not strong among older population utilizing digital interventions.   

Findings from previous phases:

By using a lean start-up approach, the first two phases (1) Pre-Concept Testing Focus Group Discussions with Older People and (2) Crowdsourcing of Food Images from Older people started from Sep. 13th 2021 to Oct. 25th 2021. Around 150 older people were recruited to upload food images to a chat group three times per day for four weeks. The initial phase demonstrated that older people are capable of both taking and uploading photos. Incentives, general nutritional advice and group setting (peer encouragement) were used as incentivizing strategies and were found to promote healthier eating among older people based on preliminary self-reported results [1][2][3]

PURPOSE/SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE OF THE ACTIVITY

The purpose of this work is to conduct small-scale testing of a digital nutrition coaching solution for older people and specifically test the comparative effectiveness of different behaviour insights (BI) approaches.

DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES TO BE CARRIED OUT

Output 1: Plan and execute a prototyping exercise to identify optimized behaviour insight approaches for a digital intervention to improve the nutrition of older people.

- Deliverable 1.1 Key documents for implementation, including research ethics approvals, informed consent forms, implementation plan and a simple photo and tagging guidelines that can be communicated to participants during onboarding.

- Deliverable 1.2 A self-tagging system whereby older people can provide relevant food tags along with uploading photos.

- Deliverable 1.3 A criteria for scoring uptake of dietary advice required to measure the effectiveness of the intervention.

- Deliverable 1.4 A dictionary of standardized message formats that will be delivered to participants.

- Deliverable 1.5 A report summarizing results of the one-month exercise to optimize behaviour intervention approaches. This should include a design for the final evaluation study including final behaviour interventions to implement and finalized scoring criteria and dictionary of messages.

METHODS TO CARRY OUT THE ACTIVITY

Primary data collection and analysis

Prototyping of health behaviour change application/intervention

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

EDUCATION

An agency/ organization/ institution/ a company with extensive background on health sciences, digital health, and health of older people.

EXPERIENCE

Proven experience in health and technological approaches especially for older people.

Extensive experience conducting research studies on older people’s health.

TECHNICAL SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE

Advanced understanding of digital technology application in the health sector and older people’s health

LANGUAGES

Fluent in written and spoken English/Chinese (local dialect spoken at the chosen research site)

COMPETENCIES

Communicating in a credible and effective way

Producing results

Fostering integration and teamwork

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Duty Station: China

Duration of contract: 6 months starting 15 March 2022

APPLICATIONS

Qualified and interested specialists should submit the following documents to the Supply Officer through WP RO UNGM at < [email protected] > by 3 March 2022

• • Curriculum Vitae (for individual contractors/team members) or Company Profile (for institutional applications)
• • Expression of Interest (cover letter). The cover letter should outline how their experience and qualifications make them a suitable candidate for this position
• • Technical and financial proposals. The proposals should include methodology, cost and timelines

Please use Tender Notice No. 166845 as subject to all submission. Only successful candidates will be contacted.