Use of a Mobile Application by Parents to Prevent Obesity in Their Children Apply for Your Health

Hospital Infantil de Mexico Federico Gomez

Status: Invitation-only

Conditions: Overweight; Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: Applícate por tu salud

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07376252

HIM 2017-086

Details and patient eligibility

About

Background. Lifestyles that promote a positive energy balance increase the prevalence of obesity. Due to the magnitude of this problem, community-level strategies are required on how to provide families with useful information to prevent it. Electronic media such as the Internet and mobile health applications are tools that have opened a new audience to send information, they are accessible and powerful, as well as the capacity to reduce associated costs, their access to information is uninterrupted, support , and personalized feedback. There is a need to develop and evaluate mobile health applications to establish consistent and effective methods to produce changes in health behavior in the population.

Aim. To evaluate the impact of a mobile health application in nutrition and physical activity on nutritional status in school children.

Methods. Community essay. Children from 4 primary schools in Mexico City will participate in the educational intervention. The schools were randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1) Apply for your health! group and 2) Control group. The educational intervention through the application will last 12 months and will focus on promoting healthy eating habits and physical activity, empowering parents to change habits. In the second year, the control group will be given access to the mobile application. At baseline, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months, children in both groups will have their nutritional status (anthropometry) and breakfast and school snack habits measured. Statistic analysis. Mixed effects models will be used to evaluate changes in BMI z-score within and between groups.

Enrollment: 743 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 5 to 11 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. School-aged children of both sexes, 5-11 years old, enrolled in the selected primary schools.
2. Children and parents who sign the written informed consent and assent form.

Exclusion criteria

1. Children participating in any weight loss program, with or without pharmacological treatment.
2. Children with a rheumatological disease, diabetes, thyroid disorder, or any condition that compromises their nutritional status.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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743 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention with the mobile application

Experimental group

Description:

The educational intervention was implemented through the mobile application "Applícate por tu salud" (Get Healthy), with the goal of sending information to parents on how to improve eating habits at breakfast and school lunch. To this end, recipes, text messages, and infographics related to these topics were developed.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Applícate por tu salud

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group received no educational intervention. Only anthropometric measurements and data collection on diet and physical activity were carried out. However, the results of the anthropometric measurements were given to the parents at different times.