Weight loss—there is an app for that! But does it adhere to evidence-informed practices?

By Emily R Breton, B. Fuemmeler, L. Abroms. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 2011

297 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Little is known about how much smartphone apps for weight control adhere to evidence-informed practices. The aim of this study was to review and summarize the content of available weight control apps. Information on content, user rating, and price was extracted from iTunes on September 25, 2009. Apps (n = 204) were coded for adherence to 13 evidence-informed practices for weight control. Latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups of apps based on endorsement practices. Only a small percentage of apps had five or more of the 13 practices (15%). Latent class analysis revealed three main types of apps: diet, physical activity, and weight journals (19%); dietary advice and journals (34%); and weight trackers (46%). User ratings were not associated with apps from these three classes. Many apps have insufficient evidence-informed content. Research is needed that seeks to develop, improve, and evaluate these apps.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, General Health Professions, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6f8d4f1df630a07ac9c2f751807fd9a0527911da

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In General Health Professions

In Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Citations in the corpus

Behavioral Functionality of Mobile Apps in Health Interventions: A Systematic Review of the Literature (2015, background): “Additional research of weight-loss apps has also been completed concluding that many apps have low evidence-informed content, demonstrating lack of industry standards and inclusion of evidence-based practices [48].”
Opportunities and Challenges for Smartphone Applications in Supporting Health Behavior Change: Qualitative Study (2013, background): “Reviews suggested that most direct-to-consumer apps are not developed by health professionals or academics, do not draw on behavior change theories or techniques, and do not have content aligned to clinical guidelines for the condition or behavior in question [20-24].”
Behavior Change Techniques Implemented in Electronic Lifestyle Activity Monitors: A Systematic Content Analysis (2014, unknown): “Sources have included the Expert Committee for Pediatric Obesity Prevention [20], the Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool [21], best practices such as those used by the Diabetes Prevention Program [22,23], and clinical recommendations from the American Association of Diabetes Educators [24] an”
Who Uses Mobile Phone Health Apps and Does Use Matter? A Secondary Data Analytics Approach (2017, unknown): “Despite the massive uptake in mobile phone ownership and health app usage and their potential for improving health, important limitations of health apps are the lack of evidence of clinical effectiveness, lack of integration with the health care delivery system, the need for formal evaluation and re”