Novel Individual Tailored Mobile Messages to Enhance Weight Loss for Teens

描述（由申请人提供）：肥胖影响数百万美国儿童，并增加他们患成人肥胖症、无数严重并发症、医疗费用增加和过早死亡的风险。找到扭转这一流行病的方法至关重要。多学科行为体重管理计划提供了有效治疗儿童肥胖的承诺。然而，此类项目通常存在治疗计划依从性差和流失率高的问题。拟议的项目旨在通过在门诊之间与病人频繁接触来解决这些问题。通过自动向参加多学科体重管理项目的青少年的移动的电话发送定制信息，作为诊所访视的辅助手段，实现这种临时联系。这些信息将针对6种目标行为，并根据个人特征（如价值观、内在动机和目标）进行定制。建议的研究项目将通过4个阶段完成：（1）与密歇根大学健康传播研究中心合作，候选人将在初步工作的基础上创建一个定制信息库和一个计算机应用程序，以便在一天中的不同时间将这些信息发送到参与者的移动的手机，接收参与者的回复，并发送适当的定制回复;（2）将对肥胖青少年进行焦点小组讨论，以评估第一阶段所开发信息的相关性和可接受性;（3）将进行为期四周的干预试验，以评估可行性和可接受性，并测试技术的性能;（4）将在60名受试者中进行为期20周的干预试验（随机分为干预组和对照组），来自密歇根州儿科门诊体重评估和减轻计划，随后分析结果和成本。职业发展活动将包括与临床环境行为干预的设计和实施相关的先进理论和应用技术培训，重点是路径和成本分析的高级数据分析。通过正式的培训，与她的指导团队的互动，以及拟议项目的执行，候选人将获得的知识和技能是一个独立的研究人员和专家在儿童肥胖治疗领域。 公共卫生相关性：肥胖是一个重要的和昂贵的公共卫生问题，但很少有有效的循证方法来治疗青少年。通过使用技术在办公室访问之间向青少年传达个人相关信息，拟议的干预措施可以显着提高肥胖治疗，并可能以最小的增量成本接触大量青少年。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Obesity affects millions of American children and increases their risk of adult obesity, a myriad of serious co morbid conditions, increased healthcare costs, and premature mortality. Finding methods to reverse this epidemic is crucial. Multidisciplinary behavioral weight management programs offer the promise of effectively treating childhood obesity. However, such programs often suffer from poor adherence to treatment plans and high attrition rates. The proposed project aims to address these problems through frequent contact with patients between office visits. This interim contact will be achieved by automatically sending tailored messages to the mobile phones of adolescents enrolled in a multidisciplinary weight management program, as an adjunct to clinic visits. The messages will address 6 target behaviors and will be tailored on individual characteristics such as values, intrinsic motivation, and goals. The proposed research project will be accomplished through 4 phases: (1) In conjunction with the University of Michigan Center for Health Communication Research, the candidate will build upon preliminary work to create a library of tailored messages and a computer application to send these messages to participants' mobile phones at varying times of day, receive replies from participants, and to send appropriate, tailored responses; (2) Focus groups with obese adolescents will be conducted to evaluate the relevance and acceptability of the messages developed in phase 1; (3) A four-week trial of the intervention will be performed to assess feasibility and acceptability, and to test the performance of the technology; (4) A pilot test of the 20-week intervention will be conducted among 60 subjects (randomized to intervention and control groups), from the Michigan Pediatric Outpatient Weight Evaluation and Reduction Program, followed by an analysis of outcomes and costs. Career development activities will include training in advanced theories and applied techniques related to the design and implementation of behavioral interventions for the clinical setting, advanced data analysis focusing on pathway and cost analyses. Through formal training, interaction with her mentoring team, and the execution of the proposed project, the Candidate will acquire the knowledge and skills to be an independent researcher and expert in the field of pediatric obesity treatment. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Obesity is a significant and costly public health concern, yet few effective evidence-based approaches to its treatment exist for adolescents. By using technology to communicate individually relevant information to teens between office visits, the proposed intervention could remarkably enhance obesity treatment and could potentially reach large numbers of teens with minimal incremental costs.