PATHS-UP Health Behavior Self-monitoring Mobile App for Adolescents

Summary

Hispanic adolescents in the U.S. are disproportionately burdened by type 2 diabetes (T2D) compared to non-Hispanic white youth (0.079% vs. 0.017%) contributing to higher rates of T2D-related vascular complications, cardiovascular disease, and mortality, among this population. Disparities in T2D are driven in part by independent, modifiable risk factors including low levels of physical activity, sleep, and poor diet. Lifestyle interventions are the cornerstone for maintaining glucose control and managing T2D. However, few studies have developed and tested lifestyle interventions for Hispanic youth with T2D. Digital health interventions that promote healthy lifestyle behaviors like physical activity, sleep, and diet, have demonstrated effectiveness among adults. Studies that use health-based smartphone applications have demonstrated preliminary efficacy for improving health-related lifestyle behaviors as these digital tools leverage behavior change techniques (e.g. self-monitoring, goal-setting, feedback) that have proven effective. Use of digital technology allows for the continuous delivery of intervention content into the home environment extending the reach of clinical care while engaging youth in a format that is age-appropriate given that today's youth are digital frontrunners. Unfortunately, while the use of digital health interventions have increased, few studies have focused on adolescents with overweight and obesity who are at high risk for T2D. The purpose of this study is to 1) develop a mobile health platform for remote and continuous monitoring of activity, sleep, and nutrition and 2) conduct a pilot study (30 days) to evaluate the efficacy of a novel digital health platform in improving obesity-related health outcomes outcomes in Hispanic adolescents (12-18 years; N=30) population.

Conditions

• Obesity and Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2
• Diabetes Prevention

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

PATHS-UP Mobile Phone Application

Youth in the intervention will be given access to a health-based mobile phone application and a remote bluetooth scale. The app is focused on promoting health education and self-monitoring. For 30 days youth will be asked to engage with content focused on promoting healthy sleep, physical activity, and dietary habits every day. Youth will also be asked to self-monitor health behaviors using the app as it pulls in data on daily steps from the accelerometer embedded within the smartphone, information on weight from daily weigh-ins using the remote scale, sleep via a weekly survey within the app, and caloric intake using a daily food log that is powered through artificial intelligence within the app.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• U.S. National Science Foundation

  collaborator FED

• Baylor College of Medicine

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Max Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-04-30

Primary Completion

2026-05-01

Completion

2026-05-01

Countries

• United States

Study Locations