The Use of Mobile Applications in Obese and Overweight Adolescents for Health Improvement

Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Physical Inactivity; Obesity, Adolescent; Mobile Phone Use; Overweight Adolescents; Behavior, Health

Treatments: Behavioral: STRAVA mobile application

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06089876

AFYNNTT-ESOCARM

Details and patient eligibility

About

Overweight and obesity, understood as an accumulation of abnormal and excessive fat, are the second leading cause of preventable and avoidable mortality in developed countries, with more than 340 million children and adolescents affected by this disease worldwide. As a consequence, overweight and obesity at an early age is already considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), with a high incidence in developed countries.

The abuse of new technologies has remained at worrying levels in the post-COVID period, favoring an increase in the adolescent population considered sedentary. In this regard, up to 70% of adolescents show sedentary behaviors, especially affecting the time spent on screens by both males (93.8%) and females (87.2%). Thus, the use of the cell phone has been shown to be a determining factor, since between 10% and 16% of adolescents show a problematic use of this device, affecting, among other aspects, their behavior during their free time.

In recent years there has been an increase in sedentary time among adolescents and a decrease in the practice of physical activity that has favored a greater accumulation of body fat and increased the probability of being overweight or obese. In this context, some studies have tried to encourage the practice of physical activity in the school context in overweight and obese population, being these interventions effective to improve body composition.

However, these interventions also have their detractors, who argue that the hours of Physical Education are too limited to dedicate so much time to a single content, and that the pedagogical component is often overlooked in their implementation. As an alternative to the above, it has been suggested that Physical Education classes could be used to promote interventions that encourage adolescents to practice physical activity in their free time, and mobile applications could be used to monitor the activity carried out by adolescents, but also as an element that generates adherence and enjoyment in this population. Research in this population using these technologies is scarce, therefore, this project aims to determine the effectiveness of a ten-week intervention promoted from the subject of physical education in which a mobile application is used after school hours on physical activity, body composition and fitness in overweight or obese adolescents.

Enrollment: 60 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 12 to 16 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Be a student of compulsory secondary education
• Present an BMI > 25.0
• Not present any disease or surgical operation that would prevent the performance of the physical tests or the follow-up of the established intervention.
• Complete the questionnaires provided and carry out the established tests in their entirety.
• Have access to any mobile device that allows access to the technological sports applications used in the intervention.

Exclusion criteria

• Failure to complete the questionnaires provided and/or to take the prescribed tests in their entirety.
• Failure to complete scheduled intervention activities.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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60 participants in 2 patient groups

"Strava" Application

Experimental group

Description:

STRAVA is an application that allows you to record your physical activity. Using GPS, it allows you to record the distance traveled with different types of physical activity (walking, running, swimming, among others). In addition, it allows you to create a community and clubs within the same community with which you can propose group trails.

Treatment:

Behavioral: STRAVA mobile application

Control Group

No Intervention group

Description:

They will not use any type of sports technology application. They will continue to perform their daily activities without intervention.