Mobile and tablet apps, ubiquitous and pervasive computing, wearable computing and domotics for health.

Social support could be a powerful weight‐loss treatment moderator or mediator but is rarely assessed. We assessed the psychometric properties, initial levels, and predictive validity of a measure of perceived social support and sabotage from friends and family for healthy eating and physical activity (eight subscales). Overweight/obese women randomized to one of two 6‐month, group‐based behavioral weight‐loss programs (N = 267; mean BMI 32.1 ± 3.5; 66.3% White) completed subscales at baseline, and weight loss was assessed at 6 months. Internal consistency, discriminant validity, and content validity were excellent for support subscales and adequate for sabotage subscales; qualitative responses revealed novel deliberate instances not reflected in current sabotage items. Most women (>75%) “never” or “rarely” experienced support from friends or family. Using nonparametric classification methods, we identified two subscales—support from friends for healthy eating and support from family for physical activity—that predicted three clinically meaningful subgroups who ranged in likelihood of losing ≥5% of initial weight at 6 months. Women who “never” experienced family support were least likely to lose weight (45.7% lost weight) whereas women who experienced both frequent friend and family support were more likely to lose weight (71.6% lost weight). Paradoxically, women who “never” experienced friend support were most likely to lose weight (80.0% lost weight), perhaps because the group‐based programs provided support lacking from friendships. Psychometrics for support subscales were excellent; initial support was rare; and the differential roles of friend vs. family support could inform future targeted weight‐loss interventions to subgroups at risk.

Mobile applications (apps) offer a novel way to engage children in behavior change, but little is known about content of commercially available apps f

Valid, reliable, and direct measures of physical activity (PA) are critical to assessing the impact of lifestyle PA interventions. However, little is known about the extent to which objective measures have been used to assess the outcomes of lifestyle PA interventions. This systematic review had two aims: 1) evaluate the extent to which PA is measured objectively in lifestyle PA interventions targeting adults and 2) explore and summarize what objective measures have been used and what PA dimensions and metrics have been reported. Pubmed, Cochrane Central Register, and PsychInfo were searched for lifestyle PA interventions conducted between 2006 and 2016. Of the 342 articles that met the inclusion criteria, 239 studies measured PA via subjective measures and 103 studies measured PA via objective measures. The proportion of studies using objective measures increased from 4.4% to 70.6% from 2006 to 2016. All studies measuring PA objectively utilized wearable devices; half (50.5%) used pedometers only and 40.8% used accelerometers only. A majority of the 103 studies reported steps (73.8%) as their PA metric. Incorporating objective measures of PA should continue to be a priority in PA research. More work is needed to address the challenges of comprehensive and consistent collecting, reporting, and analyzing of PA metrics.

Background: Physical activity is essential for chronic disease prevention, yet <40% of overweight/obese adults meet the national activity recommendations. For time-efficient counseling, clinicians need a brief, easy-to-use tool that reliably and validly assesses a full range of activity levels, and, most importantly, is sensitive to clinically meaningful changes in activity. The Stanford L eisure-Time Activity Cat egorical Item (L-Cat) is a single item comprising six descriptive categories ranging from inactive to very active. This novel methodological approach assesses national activity recommendations as well as multiple clinically relevant categories below and above the recommendations, and incorporates critical methodological principles that enhance psychometrics (reliability, validity and sensitivity to change). Methods: We evaluated the L-Cat’s psychometrics among 267 overweight/obese women who were asked to meet the national activity recommendations in a randomized behavioral weight-loss trial. Results: The L-Cat had excellent test–retest reliability (κ=0.64, P<0.001) and adequate concurrent criterion validity; each L-Cat category at 6 months was associated with 1059 more daily pedometer steps (95% CI 712–1407, β=0.38, P<0.001) and 1.9% greater initial weight loss at 6 months (95% CI −2.4 to −1.3, β=−0.38, P<0.001). Of interest, L-Cat categories differentiated from each other in a dose-response gradient for steps and weight loss (Ps<0.05) with excellent face validity. The L-Cat was sensitive to change in response to the trial’s activity component. Women increased one L-Cat category at 6 months (M=1.0±1.4, P<0.001); 55.8% met the recommendations at 6 months whereas 20.6% did at baseline (P<0.001). Even among women not meeting the recommendations at both baseline and 6 months (n=106), women who moved ⩾1 L-Cat categories at 6 months lost more weight than those who did not (M=−4.6%, 95% CI −6.7 to −2.5, P<0.001). Conclusions: Given strong psychometrics, the L-Cat has timely potential for clinical use such as tracking activity changes via electronic medical records, especially among overweight/obese populations who are unable or unlikely to reach national recommendations.