Exploring the Usability of a Mobile App for Adolescent Obesity Management

Abstract

BackgroundObesity is a global epidemic. Behavioral change approaches towards improving nutrition, increasing physical activity level, improving sleep, and reducing sitting time are recommended as best practices in adolescent obesity management. However, access to evidence-based treatment is limited and portable technologies such as mobile apps may provide a useful platform to deliver such lifestyle interventions. No evidence-based validated app exists for obesity intervention; therefore, a novel mobile app (Reactivate) was developed for use in the Temple Street W82GO Healthy Lifestyles Program (W82GO).ObjectiveThis study aimed to test the usability (technical effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction) of the Reactivate mobile app in obese adolescents.MethodsTen adolescents (7 males and 3 females, aged 12-17 years) who had been treated for obesity (>98th percentile for body mass index) at the Temple Street Children's University Hospital were recruited. Participants were given 8 tasks to complete in order to test the technical effectiveness of the app. A research assistant timed the user while completing each task in order to test the relative user efficiency of the app (time-on-task). The tasks fell into 5 categories and required the user to enter personal settings, find and answer surveys, create a message, use the goal setting feature, and enter details regarding their weight and height. In exploration of user satisfaction, each participant completed the standardized software usability measurement inventory (SUMI), which measures 5 aspects of user satisfaction: efficiency, effect, helpfulness, controllability, and learnability. Descriptive statistics were used to explore the mean relative user efficiency and SUMI scores.ResultsMean age was 14.26 (SD 1.58) years. All adolescents completed each of the tasks successfully. The mean relative user efficiency scores were two to three times that of an expert user. Users responded that they would use Reactivate to monitor their growth over time, for motivation, and for goal setting. All users described Reactivate as an important mobile app.ConclusionsOur study describes the usability of a mobile app used in adolescent obesity management. Adolescents found Reactivate easy to use and their SUMI results indicated that the app scored high on user satisfaction. Usability testing is an important step towards refining the development of the Reactivate app, which can be used in the treatment of obesity. The study on the clinical efficacy of the Reactivate app is currently underway.

Smartphone Interventions for Weight Treatment and Behavioral Change in Pediatric Obesity: A Systematic Review

“…14 By adapting face-to-face overweight and obesity treatment, smartphone interventions have the potential to encourage small, but significant, health behavioral changes. 21 The multimodal and interactive nature of Webbased technologies, including smartphone applications, can capture personal relevance and motivation via broad opportunities for feedback, offer individual choices for learning and literacy styles, and provide a diversity of interactive components capable of matching specific behavioral change goals. 22 This systematic review provides a comparative evaluation of the effectiveness of smartphones in multidisciplinary treatment of childhood obesity in the last 5 years, with a specific interest in behavior change.…”

Video-based smartphone app (‘VIDEA bewegt’) for physical activity support in German adults: a study protocol for a single-armed observational study

“…Previous studies have shown the importance of usability testing for successful app development. [57][58][59] The thinkaloud method has proven to be a useful way to gain insight into the thought processes and problems of test persons, especially in digital health interventions. 31 58 In order to apply the results of the usability test, a process evaluation is included in the study, in which usage data of the app, as well as obstacles during app use, will be evaluated.…”

<p>Management of Overweight and Obesity: Technology-Based Interventions Among Generation Y</p>

“…Questionnaire design was inspired by the research described in the paper "Exploring the Usability of a Mobile App for Adolescent Obesity Management" by O'Malley et al 10 Questionnaire included 15 questions where the majority of it was a multiple choice. It was divided into four parts and the estimated time for its completion was 5 min.…”