In their research article titled “Effects of a novel mobile health intervention compared to a multicomponent behaviour changing program on body mass index, physical capacities and stress parameters in adolescents with obesity: a randomized controlled trial”, Aikaterini Stasinaki et al. investigated PathMate2, a mobile health intervention for youth with obesity who have limited access to health care.

The authors conducted a randomized controlled not blinded trial (1:) with 41 youth-aged participants in a childhood obesity center in Switzerland. Over nearly 6 months, the experimental group received daily conversational agent counselling via a mobile app as well as standardized counselling.
They investigated the reduction in BMI (adjusted for age and sex) as primary outcome and changes in body fat and muscle mass, waist-to-height ration, physical capacities, blood pressure, and pulse as secondary outcomes. In order to meisure levels of stress, patients further perforemed biofeedback relaxation exercises during measurement of stress parameters (plasma cortisol, stress questionnaire).

The authors found that the PathMate2 intervention resulted in significant and lasting improvements of physical capacities and body composition, but not in sustained BMI-SDS decrease. This youth-appealing mobile health intervention provides an interesting approach for youth with obesity who have limited access to health care. Biofeedback reduces acute stress and could be an innovative adjunct to usual care.

For further details, please refer to the full research article.

Reference:

Stasinaki, A., Büchter, D., Shih, C.-HI., Heldt, K., Güsewell, S., Brogle, B., Farpour-Lambert, N., Kowatsch, T., D. l’Allemand. (2021).Effects of a novel mobile health intervention compared to a multi-component behaviour changing program on body mass index, physical capacities and stress parameters in adolescents with obesity: a randomized controlled trial, BMC pediatrics 21(1): 1-16.