Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Dec 3, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Dec 7, 2018 - Feb 1, 2019
Date Accepted: Jul 21, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
A Promising Food-Coaching Intervention Program to Obtain Optimal Gestational Weight Gain in Pregnant Overweight and Obese Women: A Pilot Randomized Control Trial of A Smartphone App
ABSTRACT
Background:
Traditional dietary recommendations to obtain optimal gestational weight gain (GWG) is ineffective.
Objective:
In this pilot, we aimed to study the feasibility of a novel food coaching smartphone app in controlling GWG and macronutrients intake, among overweight and obese pregnant women.
Methods:
We designed a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and recruited 30 overweight and obese pregnant women (1:1 ratio) during 18-20 weeks of gestation and followed them up in 4 and 8 weeks, respectively. Both groups received standard pregnancy dietary orientation at recruitment, while intervention group received an 8-week’s real-time food coaching via a smartphone app. This food coaching smartphone app (Glycoleap, Holmusk, Singapore) aimed to improve care and outcomes for people with diabetes. Pregnant women using this app were able to upload food images (e.g., a picture of a meal, a drink, or a dessert) and received real-time and detailed food coaching comments and guidance provided by professional dietitians during the day (8am-8pm). We collected detailed characteristics during recruitment and examined anthropometry at all visits. We compared mean differences of 8-week’s GWG and macronutrients intake between two groups.
Results:
Upon study completion, 3 subjects dropped out from intervention while 1 gave birth prematurely from control group. The acceptance of smartphone app is 90%. More achieved optimal GWG per week in intervention group (7/12, 58.3%) than in control group (5/14, 35.7%). Food coaching smartphone app seemed to help in reducing GWG and cholesterol intake.
Conclusions:
Our findings showed that food coaching smartphone app is feasible and also more favorable in weight gain control and cholesterol intake control among overweight and obese pregnant women. Although our results were not significant (perhaps attributed to the small sample size), it provided a proof-of-concept on the feasibility of applying such technology in future RCTs with a larger sample size, an earlier intervention onset, and a longer follow-up for overweight and obese pregnant women. Clinical Trial: Null.
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