mHealth Biometrics for young people with Obesity (MOTIVATE- LOOP)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Mobile Health Biometrics to Enhance Exercise and Physical Activity Adherence in children and young people with Obesity (MOTIVATE- LOOP)
IRAS ID
291625
Contact name
Matthew Cocks
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Liverpool John Moores University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Childhood obesity is a major health concern and most children and adolescents with obesity remain obese as adults. The key interventions for tackling childhood obesity involve lifestyle modification, with dietary restriction and physical activity being the cornerstone in this process. Maintaining long term adherence to physical activity programs is a major challenge in achieving weight loss. Research is needed to identify more effective methods to help obese adolescents increase their everyday physical activity levels, exercise regularly and stick to exercise regimes.
The aim of the project is to study the use of mobile health technology (smartphones, wearable technology and apps supporting the delivery of interventions) and exercise counselling on the adherence to exercise of obese adolescents (aged 12 to 18 years). We hypothesise that the use of mobile health technology will increase the exercise adherence of obese adolescents therefore, improving physiological outcome measures.
The study will recruit patients from the Liverpool Overweight and Obesity Programme at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital (LOOP@ Alder Hey). 40 participants will be recruited and randomly assigned to one of two groups (Control n=20, Intervention n=20). Patients in the control group will continue to follow the LOOP@ Alder Hey programme but physical activity sessions will be monitored during the 12-week intervention using a heart rate monitor. Importantly, the heart rate monitor will not provide any feedback to the patient. The intervention group will be provided with exercise counselling and to support this they will also be provide with a wristwatch that can monitor everyday activity and their heart rate, a smartphone app and access to a website. The intervention group will also participate in 5 consultations with an exercise specialist to plan their exercise programme and be updated on their progress towards physical activity targets. Weekly text message updates will also provide feedback to the intervention group with participants able to respond to these updates. Before and after the 3-month supported interventions, volunteers will participate in testing to assess changes in physical activity, blood pressure, glycaemia control, body composition and health related quality of life. Interviews with participants, parents and the LOOP Clinic multidisciplinary team will form the basis for a review of the pilot randomised control trial. Participants will also fill out 6 validated questionnaires about motivations, the impact of their condition on daily life and their typical exercise levels.REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/EM/0030
Date of REC Opinion
17 Mar 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion