Grant Number:	5R21CA187929-02 Interpret this number
Primary Investigator:	Turner-Mcgrievy, Gabrielle
Organization:	University Of South Carolina At Columbia
Project Title:	Increasing Dietary Self-Monitoring and Weight Loss in an Mhealth Intervention
Fiscal Year:	2016

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Increasing dietary self-monitoring and weight loss in a mHealth intervention Abstract/Project Summary Overweight plays a role in both cancer incidence and survival. Finding low-cost and innovative ways to reach overweight adults to help them lose weight and decrease cancer risk, however, has been difficult. Many people find face-to-face weight loss interventions to be time consuming and inconvenient. Providing weight loss information via podcasting allows for participants to receive weight loss tips anywhere. Podcasts are audio files that may be downloaded and transferred to portable audio players (MP3 players or smartphones). Our previous podcasting weight loss intervention proved to be a successful way to help overweight men and women achieve modest weight loss over a 3 to 6 month period. One of the keys to successful weight loss is regular dietary self-monitoring (recording caloric intake of every food/drink consumed). This can be burdensome. Our team has developed a mobile watch-like device which assesses bites and provides feedback on caloric intake to users (called the Bite Counter). The goal of this project is to test the effectiveness ofa behavioral weight loss intervention delivered via podcasting with participants randomized to self-monitor diet with the Bite Counter or with a standard diet mobile app. Mobile health (mHealth technologies hold promise as a way not only to deliver the behavioral content of a low-cost and scalable weight loss intervention but also to provide innovative ways for participants to self-monitor behavior and receive in-the-moment feedback. If a 5 percent weight loss can be achieved by a completely mobile intervention, then this will dramatically shift how behavioral weight loss programs are administered and have the potential to decrease cost and increase dissemination rates.