Weight-loss Treatment Through Smartphone-assisted Dietary Coaching

Summary

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of weight loss counselling via a smartphone-app for patients with overweight/obesity in a 1-year long pilot study.

The study is organized in the following phases:

Recruitment (-14 to -2). Participants will be informed about the study. Participants agreed to enter the study and signed an informed consent.

Screening / Baseline measurement (week -2) Inclusion criteria will be checked. Anthropometric measurements: height, weight, waist circumference, body fat, blood pressure measurement, blood sampling for blood glucose; HbA1c, Insulin; Triglyceride, HDL-Cholesterol (assessment Part I). During the visit participants are requested to fill in a paper-pencil questionnaire: socioeconomic background (only at the beginning of the study), dietary and exercise habits, health-related quality of life, self-effectiveness (assessment part II). The participants are introduced to the smartphone assisted coaching.

Introductory phase (2 weeks): Participants take pictures of their meals with the app, which they send to the dietitian. After the introductory phase, the patients and the dietitians discuss via app how the patients should change their habits and agree on goals to reduce their weight.

Phase 1 (12 weeks): Intensive online counselling with the smartphone app, with the agreed upon goals in mind (5 days per week + one Skype call). Group counselling session with / without a dietitian are held if necessary. Furthermore, the dietitians make available information material for patient specific dietary topics online. Week 12: assessment I+II.

Phase 2 (until week 25): The habits that further a weight reduction are being stabilised - the frequency of the online counselling is reduced (3 days per week), group counselling with / without a dietitian are held if necessary. Furthermore, the dietitians hand out information material for patient specific dietary topics.

Phase 3 (week 26-52): This phase is relevant for maintaining the patient's wright. Online counselling happens once every 2 weeks. Group counselling with / without a dietitian are held if necessary. Furthermore, the dietitians hand out information material for patient specific dietary topics. At the end end, the dietitians will again collect data (assessment I+II). The online counselling process is evaluated with 3 group discussions.

Follow-up (week 104)

Conditions

• Overweight
• Obesity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

smartphone-assisted dietary coaching

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Bern University of Applied Sciences

  collaborator OTHER

• Zentrum für Adipositas- und Stoffwechselmedizin Winterthur GmbH

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation

  collaborator OTHER

• Oviva AG

  lead INDUSTRY

Principal Investigators

• Karin Haas, Dr.rer.nat. · Bern University of Applied Sciences

• Susanne Maurer-Wiesner, Dr.med. · Zentrum für Adipositas- und Stoffwechselmedizin Winterthur GmbH

• Kai Eberhardt, Dr.sci.ETH · Oviva AG

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-03-31

Primary Completion

2017-07-31

Completion

2018-06-30

Countries

• Switzerland

Study Locations