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Advancing Equity: Cultural Competency in Nutrition

(SYM07-01-25) Usability of a Novel Culturally Tailored Platform to Support Personalized and Inclusive Cuisines in Environments for Healthcare

Monday, June 2, 2025
2:45 PM – 3:00 PM ET
Location: S230 E-H
Objectives: The need for formal nutrition services is growing in the U.S. with rising prevalence of diet-related chronic conditions. However, Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs) do not currently have access to a point of care resource to support provision of culturally tailored nutrition services. The objective of this study was to test the usability and acceptability of our point-of-care web-based platform developed to Support Personalized and Inclusive Cuisines in Environments for Healthcare (SPICE-Healthcare) through a culturally-tailored comprehensive nutrition assessment.

Methods: We iteratively developed and tested SPICE-Healthcare with RDNs (n=30) working in a variety of healthcare settings. We conducted three phases of 1-hour usability testing sessions with participants during which they provided qualitative input on (a) the content and presentation of information related to the comprehensive nutrition assessment and (b) opportunities for further cultural personalization of the tool, and then completed a (c) quantitative survey to evaluate the usability and acceptability of SPICE-Healthcare using validated measures.

Results: We successfully developed a comprehensive nutrition assessment tool that reflected high usability (System Usability Scale mean = 82.2 out of 100) and acceptability (Client Satisfaction Questionnaire score 27.45 out of 32). We refined the tool iteratively based on qualitative feedback from participants, culminating in a comprehensive, culturally tailored nutrition assessment that can be used at the point of care across healthcare settings.

Conclusions: SPICE-Healthcare is a novel and promising approach to enhancing cultural personalization of nutrition services. Our approach to designing SPICE-Healthcare involving co-design with RDNs has resulted in a tool that is usable and meets the needs of RDNs. RDN feedback reflects opportunities for further enhancing SPICE-Healthcare to support care planning and educational resources for patients and their caregivers.

Funding Sources: We are grateful to support from the following sponsors at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign: the Illinois Computes Program, the Chancellor’s Call to Action Program, and the Personalized Nutrition Initiative.