Young American adults own smartphones at a higher rate than any other age group. Researchers from Duke University wanted to see if capitalizing on that smartphone usage with a low-cost weight-loss app might help the 35 percent of young adults in the U.S. who are overweight or obese.
If you’re rooting for smartphones to solve all our health problems, you’re not going to like what the researchers found. The smartphone app didn’t help young adults lose any more weight than if they hadn’t been using the app at all.
The study, which was published Wednesday in the journal Obesity, looked at 365 young adults ages 18 to 35. A third of the participants used an Android app specifically created for the study, which not only tracked their calories, weight and exercise but also offered interactive features like goal setting, games and social support.
Another third of the participants received six weekly personal coaching sessions,followed by monthly phone follow-ups. Plus, this personal coaching group was also encouraged to track their weight, calories and exercise via smartphone. The last third of the participants was put into a control group and given three handouts on healthy eating and exercise — nothing else.
