Dairy Council of California's Personal Nutrition Planner: Results of the Online Tool among Women

Previous research suggests that adults fall short of consuming several key nutrients (potassium, calcium, magnesium) while intake of nutrient-poor, discretionary items is on the rise. The primary purpose of this experimental study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Dairy Council of California's online Personal Nutrition Planner (PNP) with a sample of women.

Participants were 307 female staff members at two large universities in Southern California, who were recruited through an e-mail advertisement. They were randomly assigned to the treatment group, who received access to the PNP, and the control group, who received access to the PNP after the end of the study. The four-week intervention consisted of weekly reminder e-mails and links to an interactive website that produces individualized feedback on dietary needs, based upon USDA dietary guidelines and information provided in an online assessment. Questionnaire assessments for this study were administered online at baseline, at the end of the intervention, and at two months follow-up.

Repeated Measures ANOVA analyses indicated that relative to the control group, the intervention group increased their intake of dairy servings, decreased their intake of sugared beverages and extra foods and lost significantly more weight across the study period. Changes in psychosocial variables were also observed such as increased propensity towards eating a healthy diet based upon values, perceived likelihood, and importance of the consequences of eating a healthy diet. Implications and future directions are discussed.