Background: Health advice is useful for establishing behavioural changes, but such changes tend not to last. It would therefore be good to identify mechanisms for reinforcing advice and one option is the use of information and communication technologies. Given the limited evidence on the effectiveness of such technologies, we decided to conduct a clinical trial to assess the efficacy of a mobile application (app) for supporting the provision health advice for weight loss.
Methods: A randomized clinical trial with 110 obese and overweight patients from the Basque public health care network (Araba). Patients were randomly allocated to the control (health advice) or intervention (health advice + app) groups. Primary (weight) and secondary (blood cholesterol level, blood pressure, haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and adherence to dietary and exercise recommendations) outcome variables were assessed at 1, 3 and 6 months after the end of the intervention.
Results: There were no significant differences in weight (0.357 kg; P = 0.7), blood cholesterol (2.6 mg/dl; P = 0.617), blood pressure (2.3 mmHg; P = 0.369) or adherence to recommendations on diet (84.6% in control and 92.9% the intervention group, P = 0.413) or physical activity (56% in controls and 75% the intervention group, P = 0.145). On the other hand, there were significant differences in HbA1c in favour of the control group (-0.095%; %; P = 0.046).
Discussion: The use of AKTIDIET® to support health advice for weight loss cannot be recommended. More high quality studies are needed, and patients should be involved in the design of apps to increase their efficacy and usability.
Clinical Trial Registration: NCT02308176.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmz020 | DOI Listing |
BMC Psychiatry
January 2025
Department of Behavioural Science and Health, University College London, London, 1-19 Torrington Place, WC1E 7HB, UK.
Background: Smoking rates in the UK have declined steadily over the past decades, masking considerable inequalities, as little change has been observed among people with a mental health condition. This trial sought to assess the feasibility and acceptability of supplying an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) starter kit for smoking cessation as an adjunct to usual care for smoking cessation, to smokers with a mental health condition treated in the community, to inform a future effectiveness trial.
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Vaccine
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Health and Biotechnology (SaBio), Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos, IREC (CSIC, UCLM, JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain.; Center for Veterinary Health Sciences, Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA.
Compr Child Adolesc Nurs
January 2025
Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Heart defects are the second most common congenital anomaly in babies born in the UK and standards state families should have access to a children's cardiac nurse specialist telephone advice service. However, there is little published information to describe the nature of calls and the workload associated with telephone support. We conducted a prospective service evaluation of telephone calls received at one UK specialist children's cardiac surgical center from parents/carers (April-June 2019).
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Healthy Starts, British Columbia Children's Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Not all adolescents have positive sport experiences. Research has repeatedly identified ties between unfavorable eating patterns and food beliefs (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClin Pharmacol Ther
January 2025
European Medicines Agency, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) Models are routinely used in drug development and therefore appear frequently in marketing authorization applications (MAAs) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA). For a model to be a key source of evidence for a regulatory decision, it must be considered qualified for the intended use. Advice on the data expected to allow qualification of a PBPK model or platform is provided in the EMA Guideline on the reporting of PBPK modeling and simulation.
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