Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jun 19, 2020
Date Accepted: Mar 21, 2021
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The effects of kencom, an mHealth app with integrated functions for healthy lifestyles, on physical activity levels and cardiovascular risk biomarkers: An observational study of 12,602 users
ABSTRACT
Background:
Mobile health (mHealth) apps are considered to be potentially powerful tools for improving lifestyles and preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD), although few have undergone large, well-designed epidemiological research. ‘kencom’ is a novel mHealth app with integrated functions for healthy lifestyles such as monitoring daily health/step data, providing tailored health information, or facilitating physical activity through group-based game events, and is linked to large-scale Japanese insurance claims databases and annual health check-up databases, enabling large cohort-like analyses.
Objective:
We aimed to assess the effects of kencom on physical activity levels and CVD risk factors such as obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes mellitus in a large population in Japan.
Methods:
Daily step count, annual health check-up data, insurance claim data of the kencom users were integrated within the app system to form a cohort-like database. Step analysis was conducted by comparing the 1-year average daily step count before and after kencom registration. In CVD risk analysis, changes in CVD biomarkers following kencom registration were evaluated among the users grouped into the quintile according to their change in step count.
Results:
A total of 12,602 kencom users were included for the step analysis and 5,473 for CVD risk analysis. The participants were generally healthy and the mean age was 44.1 ± 10.2 years. The daily step count significantly increased following kencom registration by a mean of 510 steps/day (P<0.001). In particular, participation in a game event held twice a year within the app, was associated with a remarkable increase in step counts. In CVD risk analysis, the highest quintile in daily step change had significant reduction in weight (-0.92 kg), LDL cholesterol (-2.78 mg/dl), HbA1c (-0.04 %), and increase in HDL cholesterol (+1.91 mg/dl) after adjustment of confounders.
Conclusions:
The framework of kencom successfully integrated the Japanese health data from multiple data sources to generate a large, longitudinal dataset. The use of the kencom app was significantly associated with enhanced physical activity, which might lead to improvement in CVD risks. Clinical Trial: N/A
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