Impact of Cooking Support Software for Handheld Game Console on the Cooking Behavior of University Students

Abstract. Japan is now faced with the emerging problems of unhealthy eating habits and poor nutrition in older adolescents and young adults (e.g., university students). To solve these problems, nutritional balance should be encouraged, and one way to do this is to promote the preparation and consumption of home-cooked meals. However, cooking often requires advanced skills, and as a result, only a small percentage of students cook for themselves. In this research, university students used cooking support software for Nintendo DS, a handheld game console; we found that consciousness about cooking and cooking behavior changed through the use of this software. Furthermore, we examined how the software can be improved to provide students who live alone with nutrition management support. Keywords: cooking behavior, handheld game console, navigation, healthcare 1. Introduction Recently in Japan, a trend toward unhealthy eating habits has emerged in older adolescents and young adults (e.g., university students), raising health concerns. For example, a sizable percentage of young adults in their 20s skip breakfast (Fig. 1) [1]. Learning to cook for one’s self is important for health, as well as for food and nutrition education. However, cooking is a complex creative activity that requires advanced knowledge; to cook daily, one needs a certain amount of skill. Moreover, there are many people who think that it is troublesome to consider the dish in consideration of foods or nutritional balance even if he likes as for cooking itself [2]. Accordingly, there has recently been growth in the use of multimedia technology to support cooking through the digitization of teaching materials [3-5]. In particular, because the diffusion of handheld game consoles is high among young people, such a platform is expected to be effective for providing cooking supporting to improve their cooking skills. In this research, university students used cooking support software developed for the Nintendo DS, we explored differences in cooking behavior with and without use of the software, and we verified the validity of this approach. Moreover, we considered ways to promote cooking among university students who live alone.