Seven minutes to healthier eating: Study shows online quiz supports improvement in Australians’ diet quality

The Healthy Eating Quiz (HEQ), an Australian-based online nutrition quiz, has been linked to small but significant improvements in diet quality according to a new cohort study that suggests personalised feedback tools could play a role in tackling the nation’s nutrition-related disease burden.

The research published in the journal Nutrition & Dietetics tracked changes in the eating habits of more than 5,100 Australian adults who completed the HEQ, a free seven-minute diet quality assessment tool developed by University of Newcastle researchers from the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI).

Participants who completed the quiz at least twice over an average of 7.5 months improved their diet quality scores by 2.3 points on a 73-point scale. While modest, this change was statistically significant and consistent across gender, age and socioeconomic status.

Lead author Dr Sasha Fenton, an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Postdoctoral researcher with HMRI’s Food & Nutrition Research Program and the School of Health Sciences at the University of Newcastle, said even small improvements in diet quality could have population-wide impacts.

“Poor dietary intake remains one of the top contributors to chronic disease in Australia,” Dr Fenton said. “We found that when people receive brief, personalised feedback about their diet, it can support small but meaningful dietary changes especially in those starting with lower diet quality.”

The HEQ is a validated, evidence-based online tool founded by study co-author, Clare Collins, a Laureate Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Newcastle and Co-Director of HMRI’s Food & Nutrition Research Program¹. The quiz is designed to measure how varied and healthy someone’s diet is, based on the Australian Dietary Guidelines.

“Diet quality is a way researchers assess eating habits, looking at how well food choices align with national recommendations and how diverse the diet is with nutritious foods. A higher diet quality score means the person is likely getting more vitamins and minerals and has a lower risk of long-term health issues,” Dr Fenton said.

Developed by dietitians, the tool calculates a total score known as the Australian Recommended Food Score and provides automated feedback about how to improve your eating patterns across food groups like vegetables, fruit, whole grains, dairy, and protein sources. It also links to recipes and resources on the No Money No Time nutrition website to give people more personalised support.

Unlike detailed food diaries, the quiz is quick and easy to complete and delivers immediate results tailored to age and gender and provides practical advice for improving diet quality.

According to the study, people who identified as non-vegetarians or reported eating most meals alone showed the greatest improvement in diet quality over time.

“These groups had lower baseline diet quality scores, so there was more room for improvement,” Dr Fenton said. “It also suggests that people who eat alone may have more control over their food choices and could be more responsive to personalised dietary advice.”

Despite having higher starting diet quality scores, vegetarians improved less possibly due to already following plant-based diets with greater diversity. This supports earlier research showing vegetarians tend to have higher diet quality overall.

“The real strength of this tool is how accessible it is,” Dr Fenton said. “People can do it in their own time, get instant feedback, and see how their diet quality compares to others their age and gender. That kind of feedback can nudge people toward healthier dietary choices.”

While the study could not confirm whether participants made long-term changes to their eating habits, the improvements observed were still considered nutritionally relevant and clinically important. The team has previously shown that improving diet quality over many years was associated with low health care use and costs.

A two-point increase in the diet quality score has previously been associated with higher intakes of fibre, and vitamins A and C which are nutrients that play key roles in gut health, immune function and disease prevention.

The researchers note that the data relied on self-reporting, which can introduce bias. Additionally, participants were self-selected, meaning they chose to do the quiz of their own accord, and may have had a higher interest in nutrition than the general population.

The quiz adjusts for vegetarian eating but does not yet distinguish between different types of plant-based diets, such as vegan or pescatarian. The researchers say further tailoring and validation of the vegetarian version could improve the tool’s relevance.

“As plant-based eating becomes more common, we need tools that reflect the diversity of these diets and offer practical, evidence-based feedback,” Dr Fenton said.

In 2024, poor diet was the third leading risk factor for disease burden in Australia, after tobacco use and high BMI, with around seven million Australians living with at least one diet-related chronic disease. The researchers suggest online tools like the HEQ could complement broader public health efforts aimed at improving diet quality and reducing rates of non-communicable diseases.

“Not everyone has regular access to a dietitian,” Dr Fenton said. “But if we can get more people engaging with their own nutrition, even briefly, we might see meaningful improvements over time.”

Professor Collins said brief, online dietary assessment tools offering instant, personalised feedback like the HEQ offer a scalable opportunity to deliver evidence-based dietary advice and potentially optimise nutrient intake.

“The HEQ+ was recently launched for dietitians, fitness instructors, GPs and other health practitioners who are now able to licence the tool for their own clients,” she said.