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mHealth approaches to child obesity prevention: successes, unique challenges, and next directions

  • Practice and Public Health Policies
  • Published:
Translational Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Childhood obesity continues to be a significant public health issue. mHealth systems offer state-of-the-art approaches to intervention design, delivery, and diffusion of treatment and prevention efforts. Benefits include cost effectiveness, potential for real-time data collection, feedback capability, minimized participant burden, relevance to multiple types of populations, and increased dissemination capability. However, these advantages are coupled with unique challenges. This commentary discusses challenges with using mHealth strategies for child obesity prevention, such as lack of scientific evidence base describing effectiveness of commercially available applications; relatively slower speed of technology development in academic research settings as compared with industry; data security, and patient privacy; potentially adverse consequences of increased sedentary screen time, and decreased focused attention due to technology use. Implications for researchers include development of more nuanced measures of screen time and other technology-related activities, and partnering with industry for developing healthier technologies. Implications for health practitioners include monitoring, assessing, and providing feedback to child obesity program designers about users' data transfer issues, perceived security and privacy, sedentary behavior, focused attention, and maintenance of behavior change. Implications for policy makers include regulation of claims and quality of apps (especially those aimed at children), supporting standardized data encryption and secure open architecture, and resources for research–industry partnerships that improve the look and feel of technology. Partnerships between academia and industry may promote solutions, as discussed in this commentary.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health Cancer Control and Epidemiology Research Training Grant 5 T32 CA 009492. The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Preventive Medicine, Institute for Prevention Research, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Eleanor B Tate MA, Donna Spruijt-Metz PhD, MFA, Gillian O’Reilly BS, Maryalice Jordan-Marsh PhD, MSN, FAAN, Marientina Gotsis MFA, Mary Ann Pentz PhD & Genevieve F Dunton PhD, MPH

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  1. Eleanor B Tate MA
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  2. Donna Spruijt-Metz PhD, MFA
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Implications

Research: Researchers should conduct process evaluation of mHealth approaches; develop more nuanced measures of screen time and technology-related activities; investigate the relationships between sedentary behavior, screen time, and focused attention; and partner with industry for developing healthier technologies.

Practice: Health practitioners should monitor, assess, and provide feedback to child obesity program designers about users' data transfer issues, perceived security and privacy, sedentary behavior, focused attention, and maintenance of behavior change.

Policy: Policy makers should support regulation of claims and quality of medical apps for children, standardized data encryption, secure open architecture, and provide resources for research–industry partnerships that improve the look and feel of technology.

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Tate, E.B., Spruijt-Metz, D., O’Reilly, G. et al. mHealth approaches to child obesity prevention: successes, unique challenges, and next directions. Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res. 3, 406–415 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-013-0222-3

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