Evaluation and Comparison of Mobile Apps in Weight Management Research and Popular Usage

Background: The use of smart phone applications (apps) and wearable devices for patients with chronic diseases is attractive since it supports behavior changes by providing personalized guidance, timely suggestions, interactive responses, and social support. Smart phone apps paired with wearable dev...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) Md.), 2022-11, Vol.30, p.288-288
Main Authors: Lawson, Mary Catherine Robertson, Yu, Hairui, Delaney, Erin, Kaiser, Kathryn
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Proprietary
Smartphones
Wearable computers
Weight control
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Background: The use of smart phone applications (apps) and wearable devices for patients with chronic diseases is attractive since it supports behavior changes by providing personalized guidance, timely suggestions, interactive responses, and social support. Smart phone apps paired with wearable devices facilitate monitoring and feedback, which are often emphasized in health interventions and research. This research has two aims: 1) to assess the extent to which researchers are evaluating or comparing commercial or proprietary apps for weight loss or weight management, and 2) to identify the most commonly utilized apps for weight management research, as well as the most popular among consumers. Methods: We searched databases from Obesity Week abstracts, ISRCTN registry, clincaltrials.gov, and NIH Reporter from 2013-2020 using search terms [(smartphone or mobile app) AND (weight loss or weight management)]. We also searched Google for the most popular weight loss apps in consumer reports, professional opinion pieces, and health journals. Results were cross-referenced with the Google Play Store and Apple App Store to determine the top ten apps based on highest average rating, number of ratings, and number of downloads. To be included, apps must have at least two features supporting diet guidance or tracking, exercise, and weight trackers. Results: In research, 5 commercial apps were cited > 1x: Lose It! (n=5), Fitbit (n=6), MyFitnessPal(n=3), Noom(n=3), and WW (n=4); 4 proprietary apps were cited > 1x: Daily24 (n=2), SMART (n=2), POWeR(n=2), and LIITah(n=2); and 17 proprietary apps were cited only 1x. The top 5 most used commercial apps in research were present in the top 6 most popular apps by user base. Conclusions: Through this review, we found the amount of information on app utilization in research being reported to be relatively sparse given the burgeoning climate for use of mobile app technology in weight management and lifestyle medicine. Commercial app developers are driven by consumer preferences and incremental monetization. Apps can be updated and changed without warning. This shifting landscape is a great challenge of research in this area and might explain why some researchers opt to develop custom apps for their purposes. These findings reflect a lack of cohesiveness and maturity in the features and recent technologies being evaluated.
ISSN:1930-7381
1930-739X