Smartphone-based application to control and prevent overweight and obesity in children: design and evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a multifaceted condition that impacts individuals across various age, racial, and socioeconomic demographics, hence rendering them susceptible to a range of health complications and an increased risk of premature mortality. The frequency of obesity among adolescent females in Iran has exhibited an increase from 6 to 9%, while among boys, it has risen from 2 to 7%. Due to the increasing prevalence and advancements in technology, the primary objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a smartphone-based app that would serve as an educational tool for parents about the matter of childhood overweight and obesity. Additionally, the app aimed to enhance parents' capacity to effectively address and manage their children's weight-related concerns. METHODS: The design of the present study is of an applied-developmental type. In the first phase, the content of related smartphone-based app was determined based on the needs identified in similar studies and the findings of a researcher-made questionnaire. The versions of the app were designed in the android studio 3 programming environment, using the Java 8 programming language and SQLite database. Then, in order to evaluate the app's usability, ease of access, and different features, the standard usability evaluation questionnaire and the user satisfaction questionnaire (QUIS) were completed by the users. RESULTS: The developed app has five main sections: the main page, recommendation section (with eight parts), charts over the time, child psychology, and reminders for each user. The designed app was given to 20 people including nutritionists and parents with children under 18 years of age for conducting usability evaluation. According to the scores of participants about the usability evaluation of the app, it can be concluded that groups participating in the study could use the program, and they rated the app at a "good" level. Overall performance of the app, screen capabilities, terms and information of the program, learnability, and general features are scored higher than 7.5 out of 9. CONCLUSION: By using this app, people can become familiar with the causes and symptoms of weight imbalance and manage their weight as best as possible. This app can be considered as a model for designing and creating similar broader systems and programs for the prevention, management, treatment and care of diseases, which aim to help control diseases as much as possible and increase the quality of life and reduce complications for be patients.

Identification of the minimum data set to design a mobile-based application on overweight and obesity management for children and adolescents.

PURPOSE: Designing mobile-based applications is one of the tools to raise the awareness of patients and the care team. Aim of this study is to identify the data elements of a mobile-based application to overweight and obesity management for children and adolescents from the experts' point of view. METHODS: In this descriptive-analytical article, data collection was conducted through library and Internet research. The research population comprised 30 nutritionists selected via simple sampling method. The research instrument was a questionnaire developed by the researcher in four sections: demographic data, assessment data, therapeutic recommendations and application capabilities. Validity and reliability were confirmed by Content Validity Ratio (CVR) and Delphi method respectively. RESULTS: The Minimum Data Set (MDS) required for overweight and obesity management in children and adolescents was designed based on the data from the guidelines of the United States, Canada, Australia, Britain, Iran, and experts' opinions. The importance of this MDS suggested was calculated based on the percentage points given by experts for the demographic data of 100%, the assessment data of 88.33%, the therapeutic recommendations of 97.67%, and the application capabilities of 88.94%. CONCLUSION: Identifying prevention and control minimum data set of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents from the point of view of experts will be effective in improving the applications in this field. This MDS has two parts of data elements: the first for recognition of the framework of evaluating and applying therapeutic methods that can empower parents to manage the child's body mass and the second as a patient's personal record for storage a set of data that can be used by nutritionists in visits to healthcare centers. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40200-021-00807-1.