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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2022 Nov 2;14(21):4608.
doi: 10.3390/nu14214608.

A Smartphone Healthcare Application, CALO mama Plus, to Promote Weight Loss: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Yoshio Nakata  1 , Hiroyuki Sasai  2 , Masahiko Gosho  3 , Hiroyuki Kobayashi  4 , Yutong Shi  5 , Tomohiro Ohigashi  5 , Shinichiro Mizuno  6 , Chiaki Murayama  6 , Satomi Kobayashi  6 , Yuki Sasaki  6
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

A Smartphone Healthcare Application, CALO mama Plus, to Promote Weight Loss: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Yoshio Nakata et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Mobile applications are increasingly used in healthcare. We have developed a smartphone healthcare application, CALO mama Plus, that can register daily diet, exercise, mood, and sleep quality, calculate dietary intake, and provide advice using artificial intelligence technology. This 3-month randomized controlled trial tested the hypothesis that CALO mama Plus could promote body weight reduction in Japanese adults with overweight or obesity. We recruited office workers as participants. The key eligibility criteria were an age of 20-65 years and a body mass index of 23-40 kg/m2. The primary outcome was body weight change over 3 months. We enrolled 141 participants and randomly assigned them to the intervention (n = 72) and control (n = 69) groups. The intervention group used CALO mama Plus, and the control group did not receive any intervention. The change in body weight was -2.4 ± 4.0 kg and -0.7 ± 3.3 kg in the intervention and control groups, respectively. An analysis of covariance adjusted for related variables showed a significant between-group difference in body weight change (-1.60 kg; 95% confidence interval -2.83 to -0.38; p = 0.011). The present study suggests that CALO mama Plus effectively promotes weight loss.

Keywords: CALO mama Plus; artificial intelligence; behavior change; dietary intake; exercise; healthcare application; mood; overweight; sleep quality; weight loss.

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Conflict of interest statement

S.M., C.M., S.K., and Y.S. (Yuki Sasaki) are employees of Link & Communication Inc. The other authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Screenshots of CALO mama Plus.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Participants’ flowchart.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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