The negative health and social consequences of poor nutrition are well documented in college students and the outcome of poor eating habits is manifest in both obesity and a variety of health concerns. This application proposes the development of a college student website called MyStudentbody.com (Nutrition), to be based at a college personal health Internet portal called MyStudentbody.com. The program will be offered through colleges and universities to educate students about healthy nutrition and learn effective, tailored healthy eating strategies. Using interactive, Web-based technology, this psychoeducational program will be supported by a number of unique features that will make it a true innovation in the area of nutrition education for college students. MyStudentbody.com (Nutrition) will guide students through an interactive program designed to teach effective nutrition education in an Internet context that is informative, engaging, and dramatic. The current application combines state-of-the-art knowledge about tailoring strategies with advances in Internet-based technologies. MyStudentbody.com (Nutrition) offers an online personalized nutrition education program allowing students to receive empirically-based information and feedback in a confidential manner.

Proposed Commercial Applications

Proper nutrition is an issue of great concern to many college health educators. Being away from home for the first time, having rushed schedules, poor peer modeling, and the availability of """"""""junk foods"""""""", etc., college students tend to eat improperly and poorly. This contributes to less than desirable lifelong eating habits and the associated negative consequences. Mystudentbody (Nutrition) takes advantage of the fact that college students are among the most """"""""wired"""""""" of all groups. They desire confidentiality and instant access to health Information and enjoy using Internet base resources. Inflexxion has a Phase III partnership with Benjamin Cummings, Inc., part of Pearson Educational, the largest college textbook publisher in the world. By linking the MyStudentbody.com (Nutrition) to the marketing of health-related textbooks, the proposed product should be exceedingly commercially successful.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Type
Small Business Innovation Research Grants (SBIR) - Phase I (R43)
Project #
1R43DK061870-01
Application #
6486266
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-SSS-D (10))
Program Officer
Podskalny, Judith M,
Project Start
2002-04-15
Project End
2002-12-30
Budget Start
2002-04-15
Budget End
2002-12-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2002
Total Cost
$112,431
Indirect Cost
Name
Inflexxion, Inc.
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Newton
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02464
Franko, Debra L; Cousineau, Tara M; Rodgers, Rachel F et al. (2013) BodiMojo: effective Internet-based promotion of positive body image in adolescent girls. Body Image 10:481-8
Cousineau, Tara M; Goldstein, Marion; Franko, Debra L (2004) A collaborative approach to nutrition education for college students. J Am Coll Health 53:79-84