Novel Individual Tailored Mobile Messages to Enhance Weight Loss for Teens

描述（由申请人提供）：肥胖影响了数百万美国儿童，并增加了他们成人肥胖、无数严重合并症、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项目为有效治疗儿童肥胖提供了希望。然而，这类项目往往缺乏对治疗计划的坚持和高流失率。拟议的项目旨在通过在门诊期间与患者频繁接触来解决这些问题。这种临时联系将通过自动向参加多学科体重管理项目的青少年的手机发送量身定制的信息来实现，作为诊所就诊的辅助手段。这些信息将针对6种目标行为，并将根据个人特征（如价值观、内在动机和目标）进行定制。拟议的研究项目将分四个阶段完成：(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建立一个定制信息库和一个计算机应用程序，以便在一天的不同时间将这些信息发送到参与者的移动电话，接收参与者的回复，并发送适当的定制回复；(2)对肥胖青少年进行焦点小组调查，评估第一阶段信息的相关性和可接受性；(3)进行为期四周的干预试验，以评估干预的可行性和可接受性，并测试干预技术的性能；(4)对来自密歇根儿科门诊体重评估和减少项目的60名受试者（随机分为干预组和对照组）进行为期20周的干预先导试验，然后分析结果和成本。职业发展活动将包括与临床环境中行为干预的设计和实施有关的先进理论和应用技术的培训，着重于途径和成本分析的先进数据分析。通过正式的培训，与她的指导团队的互动，并执行拟议的项目，候选人将获得知识和技能，成为儿童肥胖治疗领域的独立研究员和专家。

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.