Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Apr 12, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 13, 2018 - Aug 17, 2018
Date Accepted: Dec 12, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Change in Waist Circumference With Continuous Use of a Smart Belt: An Observational Study
Background:
Health insurers and policymakers are trying to prevent and reduce cardiovascular diseases due to obesity. A smart belt that monitors activity and waist circumference is a new concept for conquering obesity and may be a promising new strategy for health insurers and policymakers.
Objective:
This preliminary study evaluated whether the use of a smart belt was associated with a decrease in waist circumference.
Methods:
In the manufacturer’s database, there were data on a total of 427 men at baseline. A total of 223, 81, and 27 users kept using the smart belt for 4, 8, and 12 weeks, respectively. Paired t tests and repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to identify the change in waist circumference at specified time intervals (at 4, 8, and 12 weeks). In addition, a linear mixed model was used to incorporate all users’ waist circumference data at each time point. Preexisting data on waist circumference and self-reported demographics were obtained from the manufacturer of the smart belt (WELT Corporation, South Korea).
Results:
Compared with baseline, the waist circumference (cm) decreased significantly at all time points: –0.270 for week 4, –0.761 for week 8, and –1.972 for week 12 (all P<.01). Although each paired t test had a different sample size because of loss to follow-up, the differences between baseline and each subsequent week increased. Equal continuous reduction in waist circumference was observed with the ANOVA and mixed model analysis (beta=–0.158 every week).
Conclusions:
The smart belt is a newly developed, wearable device that measures real-time steps, sedentary time, and waist circumference. In this study, we showed that wearing the smart belt was associated with reducing waist circumference over 12 weeks. This direct-to-consumer smart health device may contribute toward reducing the risk of obesity and related conditions and controlling increasing health costs for health insurers.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.