Interactive cause and effect comic-book storytelling for improving nutrition outcomes in children

Obesity among children and adolescents is increasingly becoming a major public health problem. Poverty and lower socio-economic status as well as lack of parental awareness regarding a balanced diet and adequate exercise all contribute towards childhood obesity. Unfortunately minority children have been especially vulnerable, among them inner-city Latino children continue to have the highest incidence rates of overweight and obesity; hence targeted intervention for this population group is of paramount importance. Access and affordability of smartphones and mobile internet devices provide an opportunity to create nutrition education interventions that can significantly impact and change attitude and knowledge regarding healthy diet and exercise. In this paper we present the design of a comic book style interactive storytelling mobile application that creates multiple cause and effect scenarios that the child can role play and learn from. The novelty and innovation lies in the design of the application to begin at a clinical setting while requiring completion at home and involving significant participation by the parent and the child.