Information literacy in food and activity tracking among three communities: parkrunners, people with type 2 diabetes and people with IBS

Background: Tracking and logging food intake and activity are increasing and there is evidence of links to improvement in health and well-being as a result of these activities. Crucial to the effective and safe use of logging is users’ information literacy.

Objective: To analyse food and activity tracking from an information literacy perspective.

Methods: An online survey was distributed to three communities via parkrun, diabetes.co.uk and the IBS Network.

Results: The data showed that there were clear differences in the logging practices that members of the three communities engaged with, and differences in motivations for tracking and extent of sharing of tracked data. Respondents showed a good understanding of the importance of information accuracy, and were confident in their abilities to understand tracked data. There were differences in the extent to which food and diet data was shared, and a lack of understanding of the potential re-use and sharing of data by third parties.

Conclusions: Information literacy in this context involves developing awareness of the issues of accurate information recording, and how tracked information can be applied to support specific health goals. Developing awareness of how and when to share data, and of data ownership and privacy are important aspects of information literacy.