Effectiveness of PUSH Notifications From a Mobile App for Improving the Body Composition of Overweight or Obese Women

BACKGROUND Technology—in particular, access to the Internet from a mobile device—has forever changed the way we relate to others and how we behave in our daily life settings. In recent years, studies have been carried out to analyze the effectiveness of different actions via mobile phone in the field of health: telephone calls, short message service (SMS), telemedicine, and, more recently, the use of push notifications. We have continued to explore ways to increase user interaction with mobile apps, one of the pending subjects in the area of mHealth. By analyzing the data produced by subjects during a clinical trial, we were able to extract behavior patterns and, according to them, design effective protocols in weight loss programs. OBJECTIVE A clinical trial was proposed to (1) evaluate the efficacy of push notifications in an intervention aimed at improving the body composition of adult women who are overweight or obese, through a dietary procedure, and (2) analyze the evolution of body composition based on push notifications and prescribed physical activity (PA). METHODS A two-arm randomized controlled trial was carried out. A sample size of 117 adult obese women attended a face-to-face, 30-minute consultation once a week for 6 months. All patients were supplied with an app designed for this study and a pedometer. The control group did not have access to functionalities related to the self-monitoring of weight at home, gamification, or prescription of PA. The intervention group members were assigned objectives to achieve a degree of compliance with diet and PA through exclusive access to specific functionalities of the app and push notifications. The same diet was prescribed for all patients. Three possible PA scenarios were studied for both the control and intervention groups: light physical activity (LPA), moderate physical activity (MPA), and intense physical activity (IPA). For the analysis of three or more means, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) of repeated means was performed to evaluate the effects of the intervention at baseline and at 3 and 6 months. RESULTS Receiving notifications during the intervention increased body fat loss (mean -12.9% [SD 6.7] in the intervention group vs mean -7.0% [SD 5.7] in the control group; P<.001) and helped to maintain muscle mass (mean -0.8% [SD 4.5] in the intervention group vs mean -3.2% [SD 2.8] in the control group; P<.018). These variations between groups led to a nonsignificant difference in weight loss (mean -7.9 kg [SD 3.9] in the intervention group vs mean -7.1 kg [SD 3.4] in the control group; P>.05). CONCLUSIONS Push notifications have proven effective in the proposed weight loss program, leading women who received them to achieve greater loss of fat mass and a maintenance or increase of muscle mass, specifically among those who followed a program of IPA. Future interventions should include a longer evaluation period; the impact of different message contents, as well as message delivery times and frequency, should also be researched. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03911583; https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03911583

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The Effects of Aerobic Exercise for 8 Weeks on the Body Composition, Blood Lipid and Liver Enzyme of Obese Women

Journal of Sport and Leisure Studies ◽

10.51979/kssls.2009.11.38.755 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 38 ◽

pp. 755-764

Author(s):

Yang Hyun Cho ◽

Ye Seon Hwang ◽

Su Ill Oh

Keyword(s):

Body Composition ◽

Aerobic Exercise ◽

Liver Enzyme ◽

Blood Lipid ◽

The Body ◽

Obese Women

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Push Notifications From a Mobile App to Improve the Body Composition of Overweight or Obese Women: Randomized Controlled Trial

JMIR mhealth and uhealth ◽

10.2196/13747 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. e13747 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Alberto Hernández-Reyes ◽

Fernando Cámara-Martos ◽

Guillermo Molina Recio ◽

Rafael Molina-Luque ◽

Manuel Romero-Saldaña ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Clinical Trial ◽

Weight Loss ◽

Body Composition ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Intervention Group ◽

The Body ◽

Control Group ◽

Obese Women ◽

Randomized Controlled

Background Technology—in particular, access to the Internet from a mobile device—has forever changed the way we relate to others and how we behave in our daily life settings. In recent years, studies have been carried out to analyze the effectiveness of different actions via mobile phone in the field of health: telephone calls, short message service (SMS), telemedicine, and, more recently, the use of push notifications. We have continued to explore ways to increase user interaction with mobile apps, one of the pending subjects in the area of mHealth. By analyzing the data produced by subjects during a clinical trial, we were able to extract behavior patterns and, according to them, design effective protocols in weight loss programs. Objective A clinical trial was proposed to (1) evaluate the efficacy of push notifications in an intervention aimed at improving the body composition of adult women who are overweight or obese, through a dietary procedure, and (2) analyze the evolution of body composition based on push notifications and prescribed physical activity (PA). Methods A two-arm randomized controlled trial was carried out. A sample size of 117 adult obese women attended a face-to-face, 30-minute consultation once a week for 6 months. All patients were supplied with an app designed for this study and a pedometer. The control group did not have access to functionalities related to the self-monitoring of weight at home, gamification, or prescription of PA. The intervention group members were assigned objectives to achieve a degree of compliance with diet and PA through exclusive access to specific functionalities of the app and push notifications. The same diet was prescribed for all patients. Three possible PA scenarios were studied for both the control and intervention groups: light physical activity (LPA), moderate physical activity (MPA), and intense physical activity (IPA). For the analysis of three or more means, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) of repeated means was performed to evaluate the effects of the intervention at baseline and at 3 and 6 months. Results Receiving notifications during the intervention increased body fat loss (mean -12.9% [SD 6.7] in the intervention group vs mean -7.0% [SD 5.7] in the control group; P<.001) and helped to maintain muscle mass (mean -0.8% [SD 4.5] in the intervention group vs mean -3.2% [SD 2.8] in the control group; P<.018). These variations between groups led to a nonsignificant difference in weight loss (mean -7.9 kg [SD 3.9] in the intervention group vs mean -7.1 kg [SD 3.4] in the control group; P>.05). Conclusions Push notifications have proven effective in the proposed weight loss program, leading women who received them to achieve greater loss of fat mass and a maintenance or increase of muscle mass, specifically among those who followed a program of IPA. Future interventions should include a longer evaluation period; the impact of different message contents, as well as message delivery times and frequency, should also be researched. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03911583; https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03911583

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ADDITIONAL ABDOMINAL MEASUREMENTS ARE A USEFUL TOOL TO EVALUATE BODY COMPOSITION IN OBESE WOMEN

Arquivos de Gastroenterologia ◽

10.1590/s0004-2803.201900000-55 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 56 (3) ◽

pp. 294-299

Author(s):

Andresa de Toledo TRIFFONI-MELO ◽

Flávia de Andrade MONTE-ALEGRE ◽

Vania Aparecida LEANDRO-MERHI ◽

Rosa Wanda DIEZ-GARCIA

Keyword(s):

Body Composition ◽

Adipose Tissue ◽

Fat Mass ◽

Body Shape ◽

The Body ◽

Anthropometric Measurements ◽

Obese Women ◽

Fat Percentage ◽

Bioelectric Impedance Analysis ◽

Umbilical Scar

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: During weight gain, most of the excess adipose tissue accumulates in the trunk. This alters the body shape and makes collection of anthropometric measurements, especially waist circumference (WC), difficult. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the sensitivity and applicability of additional abdominal measurements in order to assess body composition of obese women. METHODS: A total of 30 women between 20 and 50 years of age and BMI above 30 kg/m² were assessed. Three WC measurements, were performed: at the umbilical scar designated as WC1 and at 8 and 16 cm above the umbilical scar, designated as WC2, and WC3 respectively. The correlation (r) between these anthropometric measurements and their sum was assessed against the parameters fat mass (FM), free fat mass (FFM), body fat percentage (%BF), and trunk fat percentage (%TF), obtained by total and trunk segmental bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA) as well as by the golden standard total and trunk dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). RESULTS: The measurements WC1, WC2, WC3, and their sum correlated strongly and moderately with the parameters FM, FFM, and %BF in total BIA and in both total DXA and trunk DXA. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrated a robust correlation between the sum of the three WC measurements and total and trunk DXA in obese women suggesting that such measurements may be a good indicator of body and trunk fat in women, actually superior to BIA results. The use of these three measurements may be an alternative for the assessment of body and trunk fat, in those cases in which the body shape due to adipose tissue trunk accumulation makes accurate classical measurement (WC1) difficult.

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