New App-Based Dietary and Lifestyle Intervention on Weight Loss and Cardiovascular Health

Abstract

Consumer digital technology is rapidly evolving, allowing users to manage their health in a simple, non-invasive manner. However, there are few studies revealing if using digital technology as part of an intervention really has an impact in consumer health compared with traditional strategies. The objective of the current study is to compare two groups (MTB; n = 18, 46.1 ± 10.4 years and MTBAPP; n = 19, 45.3 ± 6.40 years) of overweight, prehypertensive individuals in losing weight and lowering their blood pressure. Both were provided with nutritionist-guided recommendations, a wearable tracking device and a dietary supplement that has previously been proven to help lose body weight and lower blood pressure. In addition, one of the groups (MTBAPP) used a mobile app specifically designed for the intervention. Blood pressure, body composition, triglyceride level, peak expiratory flow, forced expiratory volume in the first second and maximum oxygen volume were measured at different time points. In addition, participants were monitored with an activity bracelet throughout the intervention. As a result, both groups significantly lost body weight, while the group using the app additionally improved blood pressure levels and lowered fat mass. Furthermore, the app users significantly increased the number of daily steps and decreased sedentary time. In conclusion, the addition of a mobile app with daily reminders to follow healthy lifestyle recommendations increased physical activity and overall improved blood pressure and fat mass levels when compared with a group performing the same intervention but in absence of the mobile application.

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

“…As for the results, a weight reduction related to the technologies used was observed in the majority of the studies [ 39 , 41 , 43 , 45 , 46 , 49 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 ]. Additionally, six studies described a reduction in body fat among participants [ 39 , 41 , 57 , 58 , 64 , 67 ] and in nine papers, a decrease in BMI was also showed beyond weight loss [ 41 , 49 , 52 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 64 , 66 , 68 ].…”

“…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 ].…”

“…The majority of the studies included a specific duration of each session and frequency of intervention, with a minimum of 8 weeks [ 40 ] and a maximum of 24 months [ 51 ] for the duration, and with frequency varying from three times daily [ 42 ] to monthly [ 51 ], except for a few where these characteristics were kept generic, specifying neither duration nor frequency [ 47 , 58 , 59 , 64 ].…”

“…In six studies, no activity was assigned to the control group [ 39 , 47 , 49 , 50 , 59 , 61 ], and in two studies, the control group had the only task of self-monitoring [ 42 , 51 ].…”