Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Apr 3;5(3):231-237.
doi: 10.1002/osp4.329. eCollection 2019 Jun.

Early weight loss in a standalone mHealth intervention predicting treatment success

M L Patel  1   2   3 , C M Hopkins  1   2 , G G Bennett  1   2
Affiliations

Early weight loss in a standalone mHealth intervention predicting treatment success

M L Patel et al. Obes Sci Pract. .

Abstract

Objective: Early weight loss is a strong predictor of longer-term and clinically meaningful weight loss but has not been studied in the context of mobile health ('mHealth') interventions.

Methods: GoalTracker was a randomized trial among adults (21-65 years) with overweight or obesity comparing three 12-week standalone mHealth interventions for weight loss. All arms received a free commercial mobile app (MyFitnessPal) for daily self-monitoring of diet and/or weight and a goal to lose 5% of weight by 3 months. Collapsing across arms, this analysis examined participants with a 1-month weight (n = 84), categorizing them as either early responders (≥2% weight loss at 1 month) or early non-responders (<2% weight loss at 1 month).

Results: Early responders - 36% of participants - had greater per cent weight change at 3 months (-5.93% [95% confidence interval: -6.82%, -5.03%]) than early non-responders (-1.45% [-2.15%, -0.75%]), which was sustained at 6 months (-5.91% [-7.33%, -4.48%] vs. -1.28% [-2.37%, -0.19%]; ps < 0.0001). Over half (57%) of early responders achieved ≥5% weight loss at 3 months vs. 11% of early non-responders. At 4 weeks, self-monitoring frequency (weight/diet) was significantly greater among early responders, which continued across 12 weeks.

Conclusion: Responding early to an mHealth treatment is associated with higher engagement and greater likelihood of achieving clinically meaningful weight loss.

Keywords: lifestyle intervention; mHealth; obesity treatment; weight loss.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

G. G. B. serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Nutrisystem and Interactive Health and holds equity in Coeus Health. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Proportion of participants achieving clinically significant weight loss, by early weight loss status
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Semper H, Povey R, Clark‐Carter D. A systematic review of the effectiveness of smartphone applications that encourage dietary self‐regulatory strategies for weight loss in overweight and obese adults. Obes Rev 2016; 17: 895–906. - PubMed
    1. Schippers M, Adam P, Smolenski D, Wong H, Wit J. A meta‐analysis of overall effects of weight loss interventions delivered via mobile phones and effect size differences according to delivery mode, personal contact, and intervention intensity and duration. Obes Rev 2017; 18: 450–459. - PubMed
    1. Burke LE, Zheng Y, Ma Q, et al. The SMARTER pilot study: testing feasibility of real‐time feedback for dietary self‐monitoring. Prev Med Rep 2017; 6: 278–285. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Svetkey LP, Batch BC, Lin P‐H, et al. Cell phone intervention for you (CITY): a randomized, controlled trial of behavioral weight loss intervention for young adults using mobile technology. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2015; 23: 2133–2141. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Turner‐McGrievy GM, Wilcox S, Boutté A, et al. The Dietary Intervention to Enhance Tracking with Mobile Devices (DIET Mobile) study: a 6‐month randomized weight loss trial. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2017; 25: 1336–1342. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources