Effect of a Multicomponent mHealth Intervention on the Composition of Diet in a Population with Overweight and Obesity—Randomized Clinical Trial EVIDENT 3
What this study found
Both groups reduced their intake of total calories, fat, protein, and carbohydrates, with the intervention group specifically showing decreases in cholesterol and full-fat dairy intake, alongside increases in wholemeal bread and whole-grain cereal consumption. Notable dietary improvements were observed in both groups.
- Study & population
- 650 participants were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (app and activity tracker) or a control group (brief dietary advice).
- Intervention
- A multicomponent mHealth intervention involving a mobile app for diet recording and an activity tracker wristband aimed at improving diet composition in overweight and obese individuals.
- Key limitation
- Results may not be generalizable to other BMI ranges; potential social approval bias in dietary self-reporting; and the short duration of the intervention may limit the assessment of long-term dietary habits.
View source
Open PDFOriginal abstract
A balanced diet can help in the prevention of chronic diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of an mHealth intervention on the distribution of macronutrients and the intake of food groups. A total of 650 participants were included in this multi-center, clinical, randomized, controlled trial (Evident 3 study). All participants were given brief advice about diet and exercise. The intervention group received, in addition, an app (Evident 3) for the self-recording of their diet and an activity tracker wristband for 3 months. Follow-up visits were performed at 3 and 12 months to collect the diet composition using the Food Frequency Questionnaire. There were decreases in the intake of total calories, fat, protein and carbohydrates in both groups throughout the study, without significant differences between them. The intervention group reduced the intake of cholesterol (−30.8; 95% CI −59.9, −1.7) and full-fat dairies (−23.3; 95% CI −42.8, −3.8) and increased the intake of wholemeal bread (3.3; 95% CI −6.7, 13.3) and whole-grain cereals (3.4; 95% CI −6.8, 13.7) with respect to the control group. No differences were found in the rest of the nutritional parameters. The brief advice is useful to promote a healthier diet, and the app can be a support tool to obtain changes in relevant foods, such as integral foods, and the intake of cholesterol. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov with identifier NCT03175614.