Dietitian‑Supervised Mobile Nutrition (Nootric) in Adults with IBD: Cohort Findings

A full-length report in Nutrients describes a 24-week mobile nutrition program delivered through a dietitian-supervised Nootric® program for adults with Crohn disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC).

The authors describe this as a prospective, single-center longitudinal cohort focused on feasibility and engagement, alongside observed changes in nutrition-related measures while clinical and biochemical disease activity was tracked during follow-up. In their framing, the intervention was feasible and well accepted, with modest improvements in selected biomarkers and diet-quality measures among adherent participants and generally stable disease activity measures over time.

The cohort enrolled 151 adults with established IBD (40.9% CD and 59.1% UC) followed for 24 weeks, with assessments at baseline, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks. The protocol included repeated nutritional biomarker panels (including protein-related markers), diet quality instruments (PREDIMED and an expanded “Nootric score”), and malnutrition risk screening using the self-administered Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), alongside anthropometrics and disease activity monitoring. Analyses were described as per-protocol and centered on participants with “adequate adherence,” defined as use of the application on ≥50% of follow-up days, yielding an adherent analytic sample of 110 patients. The authors also reported weight outcomes by BMI subgroup, including an obesity subgroup, and tracked clinical indices and inflammatory biomarkers across visits.

Feasibility reporting included engagement metrics such as intensity of use and patient-reported satisfaction with the nutritional service. The authors reported application use on 47.1% of potential days and a satisfaction rating of 4.3 out of 5, along with high volumes of logged interactions spanning recipe functions, nutrition-related contacts, and direct chat messages. “Dietitian-supervised” support was described as combining scheduled study visits with continuous follow-up through the app’s digital support service, with oversight also involving the IBD medical team. These process measures were presented by the authors as consistent with acceptability of the digital nutrition model in this clinical cohort.

Among adherent users, the authors reported improvements in protein-related nutritional biomarkers, with serum albumin and prealbumin increasing from baseline to 24 weeks (albumin 4.38 to 4.49 g/dL, p=0.003; prealbumin 24.9 to 26.1 mg/dL, p=0.047). Diet quality was also reported to improve over follow-up, with the median expanded Nootric score rising from 31 at baseline to 40 at week 24 (p=0.018); diet quality was also assessed with PREDIMED. Malnutrition risk, assessed by MUST, was reported to improve more in participants with higher application use intensity. In BMI-stratified reporting, the obesity subgroup was described as achieving mean weight loss of approximately 6% of baseline body weight by 24 weeks.

Disease activity monitoring continued throughout follow-up, with the authors reporting overall stability in clinical indices (Harvey–Bradshaw Index for CD and Walmsley Index/SCCAI for UC) and in biochemical markers including fecal calprotectin and C-reactive protein across the assessment timepoints. They also reported that micronutrient and vitamin levels did not show statistically significant changes at the 12- and 24-week evaluations compared with baseline.

Overall, the authors characterized the findings as supporting feasibility of the supervised app-based approach, alongside selected nutrition and diet-quality signals with stable activity measures over the study period.

Key Takeaways:

• This prospective, single-center longitudinal cohort enrolled 151 adults with CD or UC and assessed outcomes at baseline, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks, with per-protocol analyses centered on an adherence-defined subgroup.
• In adherent users, improvements in protein-related biomarkers and diet quality scores were reported over 24 weeks, with malnutrition risk (MUST) described as improving more in higher-adherence users and weight reduction reported in the obesity subgroup.
• Clinical indices and biochemical activity markers were tracked during follow-up and were described as overall stable, while micronutrient levels were reported as not changing significantly.