Tweets,Apps,and Pods: Results of the 6-month Mobile Pounds Off Digitally (Mobile POD) randomized weight-loss intervention among adults.

Previous interventions have shown promising results using theory-based podcasts to deliver a behavioral weight-loss intervention. the objective of our study was to examine whether a combination of podcasting,mobile support communication,and mobile diet monitoring can assist people in weight loss. in this 6-month,minimal contact intervention,overweight (n = 96,body mass index 32.6 kg/m(2)) adults were recruited through television advertisements and email listservs and randomly assigned to podcast-only or podcast+mobile groups. both groups received 2 podcasts per week for 3 months and 2 minipodcasts per week for months 3-6. in addition to the podcasts,the podcast+mobile group was also instructed to use a diet and physical activity monitoring application (app) on their mobile device and to interact with study counselors and other participants on twitter. weight loss did not differ by group at 6 months: mean -2.7% (sd 5.6%) podcast+mobile,n = 47; mean -2.7% (sd 5.1%) podcast,n = 49; p = .98. days/week of reported diet monitoring did not differ between podcast+mobile (mean 2.3,sd 1.9 days/week) and podcast groups (mean 1.9,sd 1.7 days/week; p = .28) but method of monitoring did differ. podcast+mobile participants were 3.5 times more likely than the podcast group to use an app to monitor diet (p = .01),whereas the majority of podcast participants reported using the web (14/41,34%) or paper (12/41,29%). there were more downloads per episode in the podcast+mobile group (1.4/person) than in the podcast group (1.1/person; p < .001). the number of podcasts participants reported downloading over the 6-month period was significantly moderately correlated with weight loss in both the podcast+mobile (r = -.46,p = .001) and the podcast (r = -.53,p < .001) groups. podcast+mobile participants felt more user control at 3 months (p = .02),but not at 6 months,and there was a trend (p = .06) toward greater elaboration among podcast+mobile participants. there were significant differences in reported source of social support between groups. more podcast participants relied on friends (11/40,28% vs 4/40,10%; p = .045) whereas podcast+mobile participants relied on online sources (10/40,25% vs 0/40; p = .001). results confirm and extend previous findings showing a minimally intensive weight-loss intervention can be delivered via podcast,but prompting and mobile communication via twitter and monitoring app without feedback did not enhance weight loss. clinicaltrials.gov nct01139255; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/nct01139255 (archived by webcite at http://www.webcitation.org/625ojhidy).