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

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.

Can Digital Technologies Be Useful for Weight Loss in Individuals with Overweight or Obesity? A Systematic Review

“…After the full-text assessment of the 133 articles that remained, 102 articles were excluded, 42 of them because they did not pertain to our question, 12 because the individuals were affected by other comorbidities, 16 because they were a different type of study from RCT, 7 because they considered a young age population (<18 years), 4 because did not have control groups, and 21 because they did not consider the assessment of changes in PA. Finally, we included 31 articles that met the inclusion criteria ( Figure 1 ) [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 ].…”

“…The included articles were published between 2013 [ 54 ] and 2023 [ 61 , 68 ], and 15 of them were performed in the USA [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 45 , 46 , 51 , 54 , 55 , 58 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 67 ], 9 in Europe [ 38 , 39 , 47 , 49 , 56 , 57 , 59 , 61 , 66 ], 5 in Asia [ 43 , 47 , 52 , 60 , 68 ] and 2 in Australia [ 44 , 50 ]. Both genders were represented in most studies, except in two studies that did not report this information [ 50 , 54 ], and two studies that included only women [ 47 , 48 ].…”

Precision Nutrition and Artificial Intelligence Mobile Apps: A Narrative Review

“…After searching for relevant articles in PubMed, 198 results were found and 7 clinical studies were considered relevant for inclusion [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Table 1 provides a brief overview of the studies included in this analysis (five randomized controlled trials, two crossover studies, and a pilot trial).…”

The SelfSTarT intervention for low back pain patients presenting to first contact physiotherapists: A mixed methods service evaluation

“…Outside MSK, apps have been found to be a useful addition to promote lifestyle change. An app to support weight loss management was tested in a Japanese population (Nakata et al., 2022). A free app, tested in a randomised controlled trial (RCT) with 141 participants has shown a positive impact on weight loss.…”