JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Obesity and its related illnesses are a major health problem around the world. Saudi Arabia has one of the highest national obesity rates globally; however, it is not easy to intervene to prevent obesity and overweightness due to Saudi Arabia’s cultural and social norms and linguistic barriers. In recent years, there has been an exponential growth in the usage of smartphones and apps in Saudi Arabia. These could be used as a cost-effective tool to facilitate the delivery of behaviour modification interventions for obese and overweight people. There are a variety of health and fitness apps which claim to offer lifestyle-modification tools. However, these do not identify the motivational features required to overcome obesity, consider the evidence-based practices for weight management or enhance the usability of apps by considering usability attributes. This research explores the opportunity and the need to develop an Arabic weight-loss app that offers localised content and addresses the issues with existing apps identified here.

Objective:

The paper explains the steps taken to design an Arabic weight-loss app that is developed to facilitate the adjustment of key nutritional and physical activities and behaviours which considers the social and cultural norms of Saudi Arabia.

Methods:

The development process of the app involves conducting a study to identify the best motivational features to overcome obesity. To do this, qualitative studies were conducted with 26 obese Saudis, who tested the level of usability of two weight-loss apps and then provided feedback and recommendations. Then, the main usability attributes that should be considered while designing a weight-loss app were identified and the chosen behavioural change strategy to be used in the app was determined. The following step was establishing a localised food database, designing the app for iPhones including developing user interface screens, a relational database and programming. Finally, a beta version was released for testing by members of the local community, including potential users and experts in the health and physical activity fields.

Results:

The development of the app took 26 months. Seven experts, five dietitians and two physical activity professionals evaluated the app’s contents. Ten potential users (five men and five women) tested the app’s level of usability, its features and performance during a pilot study. They reported that the app’s design is interactive and the motivational features are user friendly.

Conclusions:

Mobile technology such as mobile apps has the potential to be an effective tool that facilitates the changing of unhealthy lifestyle behaviours within the Saudi community. To be successful, the target group, the usability, motivational features and social and cultural norms must be considered. To better determine app’s effectiveness on weight loss management, a three-month-long pre-post intervention study will be conducted with 26 obese Saudi.