The Burrill Report


At the end of a long day, I have been known to reach into the freezer and pull out a comforting pint of New York Super Fudge Chunk only to turn around to meet with the glare of Dr. Brunetti, who will look at me with her face mangled by disgust and disappointment, scan my body down to my protruding gut, and then back to my eyes as if to say, “really?”

On other nights Dr. Brunetti will simply greet me after a long day and say, “Did you go to the gym today?” often followed by that same glare. I have suggested to Dr. Brunetti, my wife, that positive reinforcement is much more effective and even proposed a veritable reward system that would have the added bonus of burning calories, but the glare, alas, is more her style.

One of the big challenges in America’s effort to combat its bulging waistlines is changing behavior. And not everyone has their own Dr. Brunetti waiting for them at home. To that end America’s war on obesity has a new weapon: the cell phone.

The National Institutes of Health is funding seven clinical trials that seek to improve weight loss and weight management through the use of mobile phones, online social networks, and even Bluetooth-enabled scales. The program is backed with a total of $36 million of funding over five years and is partially supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Putting on extra pounds can lead to high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The studies point to how ubiquitous technology is being enlisted in the fight against chronic disease as a potentially potent new weapon.

The trials are aimed at preventing adults 18 to 35 from gaining weight and promoting weight loss through healthy eating and exercise. It’s an age group that is particularly susceptible to unhealthy weight gain as previous research has shown that people aged 18-49 gain an average of 1-2 pounds each year, with the largest weight gain of 3 pounds per year occurring in 20-29-year-olds.

“These studies are designed to provide evidence to help us guide young adults toward approaches that work and allow them to choose the options that work best for them,” says Susan Shurin, acting director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which is funding the trials.

Although each of the seven trials are different and will be conducted at a single institution, the teams are using a set of common measures and questionnaires so they can better compare their findings when the trials are complete.

“We expect the use of technology will help us reach young adults at risk of weight gain and inspire them to stay at a healthy weight,” says trials steering committee chair Leslie Lytle, who is leading a trial that features Web-based social networking among community college students.

One trial at the University of Pittsburgh will gauge how text message reminds and wearable exercise monitors improve weight loss. Another at the University of California, San Diego using mobile phones, Facebook, and the web to alter the behavior of overweight and obese university students to see if behaviorial intervention that uses mobile phones, Facebook and the web can be effective at changing their behavior.

Recently the story of Bob Mewse got a fair bit of attention Mewse, a 56-year-old British man, lost 98 pounds after he found a picture of himself on Google’s Street View and was horrified by his appearance.

It will be interesting to see if researchers are successful in capitalizing on cell phones, exercise monitors, and social networks to move people to get and stay healthy. Of course, an easier way to tap the real power of social networks might be to get Facebook to require people to post only untouched, full body photographs of themselves. Then we all might find our inner Mewse.


December 10, 2010
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-omg_ur_so_fat.html