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Obesity Prevention and Control: Digital Health Interventions for Adolescents with Overweight or Obesity

CDC

An Evidence-Based Practice

Description

Interventions combine self-monitoring and goal setting with digital health to help with weight management among adolescents aged 12-18 years who have overweight or obesity.

Trained moderators, with oversight from healthcare providers, work to increase adolescents’ awareness of healthy dietary or physical activity behaviors that help with weight management and teach them how to use the program’s website, mobile app, or wearable devices. Over a period of at least two months, adolescents record their weight and dietary or physical activity behaviors and track their progress toward set goals.

Results / Accomplishments

The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends digital health interventions to assist adolescents with overweight or obesity with weight management.

Evidence shows these interventions lead to small but meaningful weight reductions in adolescents with overweight or obesity.

The systematic review included 11 studies (13 study arms).

Body Mass Index (BMI) z-score decreased by a median of 0.10 (6 studies, 8 study arms).
Percent body fat decreased by 0.49 percentage points (3 studies).
BMI decreased by 0.39 kg/m2 and 0.27 kg/m2 (2 studies).

About this Promising Practice

Primary Contact
The Community Guide
1600 Clifton Rd, NE
MS V25-5
Atlanta, GA 30329
(404) 498-1827
communityguide@cdc.gov
https://www.thecommunityguide.org/
Topics
Health / Weight Status
Health / Nutrition & Healthy Eating
For more details
https://www.thecommunityguide.org/findings/obesity...
Target Audience
Teens

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An Evidence-Based Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures showing improvement in the outcome(s) of interest after the implementation of the program (i.e. increase in smoking cessation, not just the delivery of a smoking cessation program). The outcome measure(s) is/are compared at relevant time periods before and after the intervention or program implementation. Alternatively, the evaluation study compares the outcome(s) between an intervention group and an appropriate control group.
  3. The study is of peer-review quality and presents numbers in a scientific manner; measurements of precision and reliability are included (e.g. confidence intervals, standard errors), results from statistical tests show a significant difference or change in the outcome measure(s), and relevant point estimates and p-values are presented. Note: if the results from an evaluation of a program are presented in a scientific manner and the outcome measure is improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant, the practice is classified as effective and not evidence-based.