New VEGANScreener App Screens the Dietary Needs of Europe’s Growing Vegan Population

Are your vegan eating habits leading to any nutritional deficiencies?

A team of European researchers has developed the VEGANScreener, a web and app dietary screening tool specifically designed for European vegans.

The tool consists of 29 questions centered around promoting or restricting specific foods and nutrients. It is currently under testing and validation, but the researchers foresee future uses for self-evaluation and healthcare purposes.

The development project, also called VEGANScreener, aims to prevent and detect nutritional deficiencies in vegans early on, and promote nutritional awareness and support among vegans, ultimately contributing to better health outcomes within this demographic.

The VEGANScreener project is a JPI HDHL (A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life EU program) funded initiative involving five scientific partners from European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain, and Germany, with additional collaborators from the US and Switzerland.

Assessing food intake

According to VEGANScreener‘s researchers, one key challenge in conducting dietary studies among vegans is accurately assessing their food intake, including niche items such as plant-based milk, meat alternatives, and algae. This is because traditional cohort studies often do not sufficiently capture the dietary habits of vegans, making it essential to develop a new tool tailored to this specific demographic.

To accurately capture these eating habits, the VEGANScreener project is currently recruiting 400 vegan participants from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. These individuals will validate the newly developed dietary screening tool and provide insights into the nutritional patterns of European vegans.

In addition to developing the screening tool, the project aims to identify different subtypes of vegan diets through novel biomarker approaches, such as metabolomics.

The results will help tailor dietary recommendations to specific groups within the vegan population, ultimately promoting better health outcomes among Europeans following vegan diets.

Furthermore, the project will also focus on creating digital applications for healthcare providers and vegan end-users. These applications will provide valuable information and support for healthcare professionals working with vegan patients while empowering them to self-assess and improve the quality of their diets through the app.

The researchers’ approach

The VEGANScreener was developed through a multi-stage process involving literature review, expert evaluation, and translation into a diet quality measurement tool. In addition, a modified Delphi technique (a method that relies on discussions by a panel of experts) and best practices in scale development were used to ensure the systematic capture of diet quality metrics.

29 experts evaluated the final draft, with items needing at least 60% agreement to be retained. It was translated into multiple languages and pretested among vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores to ensure accuracy and ease of completion. Based on feedback, iterative revisions were made until all versions matched the English master version.

A growing vegan population

The researchers say the VEGANScreener project represents a significant step forward in addressing the unique dietary needs of the growing vegan population in Europe.

With ongoing research and validation efforts, the VEGANScreener has the potential to become a valuable tool for improving dietary quality and may be adapted for use in other regions in the future.

“Its potential applications include estimating the overall diet quality of vegans, identifying potential areas for dietary enhancement, assisting vegans and their health advisors in setting dietary goals, and monitoring vegan diet quality at both individual- and population levels,” the authors state.

Source: Vegconomist