Nutrysmart: An Intelligent System for Nutritional and Family Services in Preventing and Managing Nutritional Problems in West Sumatra

Nutritional problems remain a complex public-health challenge. They are influenced not only by inadequate nutrient intake but also by household knowledge, dietary practices, access to reliable information, continuity of monitoring, and coordination between communities and health professionals. The 2024 Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey reported a national stunting prevalence of 19.8%. The continuing relevance of NutrySmart is particularly evident in its intended implementation areas, where the combined prevalence of severely stunted and stunted children was approximately 26.5% in Pesisir Selatan and 26.9% in Tanah Datar in 2024.

In practice, information on nutritional status, nutrient requirements, dietary intake, and nutrition education is often fragmented across different services. Monitoring is commonly periodic, limiting families’ access to continuous and understandable feedback. This situation creates a need for an integrated digital platform that combines dietary recording, nutritional-status monitoring, nutrient-requirement assessment, education, and progress visualisation.

NutrySmart was developed through a higher-education consortium involving Universitas Negeri Padang, Universitas Andalas, Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Sumatera Barat, and Poltekkes Kemenkes Padang in collaboration with the West Sumatra office of BKKBN. The programme was designed for implementation with community cadres and pilot deployment in Pesisir Selatan and Tanah Datar.

The platform integrates nutritional-status information, recommended dietary allowances, food-intake recording, a Food Frequency Questionnaire, educational materials, nutrition recommendations, intake tracking, personalised health goals, and user-progress visualisation. It is also intended to support collaboration among communities, health professionals, government agencies, and academic institutions.

NutrySmart aims to develop an accessible, integrated, and user-oriented family nutrition service platform to support the prevention and management of nutritional problems in West Sumatra.

The specific objectives are to:

1. Integrate nutritional-status monitoring, nutrient requirements, dietary patterns, and educational resources into one platform.
2. Help users record food consumption and understand its relationship to their individual nutritional needs.
3. Provide relevant nutrition education for adolescents, pregnant women, parents, young children, and other family members.
4. Deliver feedback and progress visualisations that encourage healthier dietary habits.
5. Support nutrition professionals and community cadres in providing structured education, assistance, and monitoring.
6. Facilitate collaboration among families, health professionals, government agencies, and academic institutions.
7. Evaluate the feasibility, usability, user acceptance, and educational potential of the platform.

The principal contributions of NutrySmart include:

• Technological contribution: an integrated digital artefact for family nutrition monitoring and education.
• Social contribution: broader access to structured and understandable nutrition information.
• Service contribution: data-supported assistance for nutrition professionals and community cadres.
• Academic contribution: an empirical foundation for research on digital nutrition literacy, digital-health acceptance, behavioural change, and intervention effectiveness.
• Institutional contribution: a collaborative model connecting higher-education institutions, government, health services, and communities.