Weight-management apps popular, but development by certified health organization unlikely

Mobile apps on weight management are widely available, but very few have been developed by a certified health organization or university, according to study findings presented at the European Obesity Summit.

“There are no published data on effectiveness of apps for weight management or weight-gain prevention, to date,” wrote Charoula Nikolaou, PhD, MSc, BSc, RD, of the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, and Mike Lean, FRCP, FRCPS, of the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom.

Nikolaou and Lean searched the Apple iTunes app store and Google Play store in the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore using the keywords “weight,” “weight management” and “calorie” to identify relevant weight-management apps. Price, download frequency, customer rating and details about the app developer were recorded.

Overall, 3,013 apps were identified among 666,169,136 downloads. Among the 2,196 Google Play store apps, 82% were free, and 43% of the 817 iTunes store apps were free. Body weight, exercise and calorie intake recording and monitoring were the most commonly identified areas of weight management in apps. The most popular apps were Fitbit, MyFitnessPal and Noom Weight Loss Coach.

Of all of the apps, 0.05% were developed with identifiable professional input.

“Obesity now affects about 40% of people by age 65 [years],” Nikolaou and Lean wrote. “It can only be prevented by effective interventions to change the diets and lifestyles for the 90% of young people who are not yet obese. Apps on lifestyle advice for weight management are very popular. They offer a huge opportunity to provide effective weight control for vulnerable young people, but currently they all lack certified content expertise or evidence of effectiveness. Transferring previously tested, effective, professionally designed online weight control materials into ‘app’ form would [ensure] content quality for use and evaluation in clinical or public health settings.” – by Amber Cox

Reference:

Nikolaou CK, Lean MEJ. Mobile applications (‘apps’) for weight management: current market characteristics. Presented at: European Obesity Summit; June 1-4, 2016; Gothenburg, Sweden.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.