An IT-based toolkit for weight-loss maintenance
Obesity is a modern social and medical problem. World Health Organisation statistics for 2008 indicated that about 50 % of Europeans had overweight, while around 20 % of men and 23 % of women had obesity. Obesity causes or influences many serious health complaints. In Europe, obesity accounts for 3–8 % of healthcare costs, meaning nearly EUR 60 billion per year in direct costs, and almost four times that in indirect costs. The costs keep rising proportionally to the rate of obesity in society. Obesity also causes 10-13 % of deaths. Each year, around 40 % of Europeans make a serious attempt to lose weight. Yet, about 80 % of them subsequently regain whatever they lost, regardless of which weight loss method they used. Thus, the real problem is long term weight loss management. That is complex. For medical researchers to solve this problem, they must develop and test new methods to maintain successful weight loss in the long term.
Studying weight loss and maintenance
The EU funded NoHoW project addressed long-term weight loss maintenance via a 5 year study. The investigation focused on understanding how and why Europeans attempt to lose weight, and on examining in detail how the successful cohort achieved it. That part of the study involved surveying 2 000 participants in three countries and following a separate group of 2 000 successful weight losers over 12 months. Researchers also conducted a controlled randomised intervention with over 1 600 overweight adults, which developed and tested ICT tools to help people keep successful weight loss up to 18 months.
A monitoring toolkit that provides behaviour-change techniques
To tackle obesity and prevent weight regain after clinically significant weight loss, researchers developed a software toolkit. The tools incorporate behavioural aspects and provide individually customised feedback regarding energy expenditure. The team also developed the architecture and data management systems used in the study. These resources are used in conjunction with commercially available personal devices. “One unique part to this study is that it addresses weight loss maintenance by the use of the devices in combination with our specially developed software tools,” explains Berit Lilienthal Heitmann, NoHoW coordinator. “This means we can collect and analyse the individual data in real time. We need these data to develop next generation digital tools for self management of weight related behaviours.” The system guides users through a weight management journey and provides interactive feedback to them over its course. Although the data collection part of the study finished in early 2020, the analysis part will be ongoing. “The main results are currently being summarised and will be under embargo until publication,” adds Heitmann. Results from previous studies revealed that developing skills to self manage energy budget behaviours does lead to effective weight loss. However, the effects of behavioural change interventions in relation to maintaining the lost weight afterwards are relatively modest. Meanwhile, current understanding remains limited concerning the factors that interfere with self management of eating and exercise. The NoHoW tools has helped reveal some of the true complexity of long term weight management. Researchers expect that the progress achieved to date will eventually lead to individually tailored advice that incorporates the complete set of physiological and behavioural factors.
Keywords
NoHoW, management, obesity, weight loss, tools, behaviour, maintenance
