Wearable devices and mobile technologies for supporting behavioral weight loss among people with serious mental illness
Open accessAbstract
Promoting physical activity is essential for addressing elevated cardiovascular risk and high obesity rates affecting people with serious mental illness. Numerous challenges interfere with exercise participation in this high-risk group including mental health symptoms, low motivation, and limited access to safe and affordable options for physical activity. Wearable devices and mobile health technologies may afford new opportunities for promoting physical activity and supporting behavioral weight loss efforts. This exploratory study examined whether daily step count measured using Fitbit wearable devices was associated with weight loss and improved fitness among individuals with serious mental illness enrolled in a 6-month lifestyle program. Participants (n=34) had a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (23.5%), major depression (50.0%), or bipolar disorder (26.5%), and wore Fitbits most of the days (M=86.2%; SD=18.4%) they were enrolled in the study. At 6-months, higher average daily step count was associated with greater weight loss (F=5.07; df=1,32; p=0.0314), but not improved fitness (F=1.92; df=1,31; p=0.176). These findings demonstrate that encouraging participants with serious mental illness enrolled in lifestyle interventions to collect more steps may contribute to greater weight loss. This suggests that wearable devices may offer a feasible and potentially effective strategy for supporting behavioral weight loss in community mental health settings.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Naslund et al. worked with patients with severe mental illnesses and the mobile app was used exclusively to record physical activity.
“Naslund and colleagues [46, 47] worked with a group of patients with severe mental illnesses from an urban community mental health center enrolled in a group behavioral weight loss program targeting fitness and healthy eating. The mobile app was used exclusively to record physical activity.”
From Mobile Apps for the Management of Comorbid Overweight/Obesity and Depression/Anxiety: A Systematic Review (2020) · cites this paper as [47]
Methods §2.1 confirms that participants with serious mental illness were enrolled through an urban community mental health center in a group weight-loss program targeting fitness and healthy eating. Methods §2.2 says the companion app synchronized step counts but also let users compare their steps and progress with others, so its use was not limited to recording physical activity. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.90)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe two studies by Naslund et al. and the one by Levinson et al. were neither randomized nor blinded.
“The two studies by Naslund and colleagues [46, 47] and the one by Levinson and colleagues [48] were neither randomized nor blinded.”
From Mobile Apps for the Management of Comorbid Overweight/Obesity and Depression/Anxiety: A Systematic Review (2020) · cites this paper as [47]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
‘Small Changes' to Diet and Physical Activity Behaviors for Weight Management
Hills, A. P., Byrne, N. M., Lindstrom, R. C., & Hill, J. O. (2013) · Obesity Facts · doi:10.1159/000345030 · Cited by 9,526 · see citing works
Walker, E. R., McGee, R. E., & Druss, B. G. (2015) · JAMA Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.2502 · Cited by 2,976 · see citing works
Using Pedometers to Increase Physical Activity and Improve Health: A Systematic Review
Bravata, D. M., Smith-Spangler, C., Sundaram, V., Gienger, A. L., Lin, N., Lewis, R., Stave, C. D., Olkin, I., & Sirard, J. R. (2007) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.298.19.2296 · Cited by 2,064 · see citing works
The Rise of Consumer Health Wearables: Promises and Barriers
Piwek, L., Ellis, D. A., Andrews, S., & Joinson, A. (2016) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001953 · Cited by 1,301 · see citing works
Functional Data Analysis with R and MATLAB
Ramsay, J. O., Hooker, G., & Graves, S. B. (2009) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-0-387-98185-7 · Cited by 912 · see citing works
The unhealthy lifestyle of people with schizophrenia
Brown, S., Birtwistle, J., ROE, L., & THOMPSON, C. (1999) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291798008186 · Cited by 877 · see citing works
Wearable Devices as Facilitators, Not Drivers, of Health Behavior Change
Patel, M. S., Asch, D. A., & Volpp, K. G. (2015) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2014.14781 · Cited by 808 · see citing works
Physical Activity Interventions for People With Mental Illness
Rosenbaum, S., Tiedemann, A., Sherrington, C., Curtis, J., & Ward, P. B. (2014) · The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry · doi:10.4088/jcp.13r08765 · Cited by 696 · see citing works
Accuracy of Smartphone Applications and Wearable Devices for Tracking Physical Activity Data
Case, M. A., Burwick, H. A., Volpp, K. G., & Patel, M. S. (2015) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2014.17841 · Cited by 694 · see citing works
Medical Comorbidity in Schizophrenia
Jeste, D. V., Gladsjo, J. A., Lindamer, L. A., & Lacro, J. P. (1996) · Schizophrenia Bulletin · doi:10.1093/schbul/22.3.413 · Cited by 614 · see citing works
A systematic review and meta-analysis of exercise interventions in schizophrenia patients
Firth, J., Cotter, J., Elliott, R., French, P., & Yung, A. R. (2015) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291714003110 · Cited by 600 · see citing works
Powell, L. M., Slater, S., Chaloupka, F. J., & Harper, D. (2006) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.2005.065573 · Cited by 544 · see citing works
A Behavioral Weight-Loss Intervention in Persons with Serious Mental Illness
Daumit, G. L., Dickerson, F. B., Wang, N.-Y., Dalcin, A., Jerome, G. J., Anderson, C. A. M., Young, D. R., Frick, K. D., Yu, A., Gennusa, J. V., et al. (2013) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmoa1214530 · Cited by 523 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Recent randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that promoting physical activity as part of lifestyle interventions for weight loss can contribute to clinically significant reduction in cardiovascular risk in as many as half of participants with serious mental illness (Bartels et al., 2013; Bartels et al., 2015;…”
BackgroundIntegrating Physical Activity Into Mental Health Services for Persons With Serious Mental Illness
Richardson, C. R., Faulkner, G., McDevitt, J. H., Skrinar, G. S., Hutchinson, D. S., & Piette, J. D. (2005) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/appi.ps.56.3.324 · Cited by 492 · see citing works
A Meta-Analysis of Pedometer-Based Walking Interventions and Weight Loss
Richardson, C. R., Newton, T. L., Abraham, J. J., Sen, A., Jimbo, M., & Swartz, A. M. (2008) · The Annals of Family Medicine · doi:10.1370/afm.761 · Cited by 421 · see citing works
Obesity among those with mental disorders: a National Institute of Mental Health meeting report.
Allison, D., Newcomer, J., Dunn, A., Blumenthal, J., Fabricatore, A., Daumit, G., Cope, M., Riley, W., Vreeland, B., Hibbeln, J., et al. (2009) · American Journal of Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2008.11.020 · Cited by 411 · see citing works
Dauwan, M., Begemann, M. J. H., Heringa, S. M., & Sommer, I. E. (2016) · Schizophrenia Bulletin · doi:10.1093/schbul/sbv164 · Cited by 393 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Recent meta-analyses have also demonstrated that physical activity contributes to reduction in mental health symptom severity among people with serious mental illness (Dauwan et al., 2015; Firth et al., 2015a).”
BackgroundThe Association of Medical Comorbidity in Schizophrenia with Poor Physical and Mental Health
Dixon, L. B., Postrado, L. T., Delahanty, J. C., Fischer, P. J., & Lehman, A. F. (1999) · The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease · doi:10.1097/00005053-199908000-00006 · Cited by 360 · see citing works
Firth, J., Cotter, J., Torous, J., Bucci, S., Firth, J. A., & Yung, A. R. (2016) · Schizophrenia Bulletin · doi:10.1093/schbul/sbv132 · Cited by 351 · see citing works
Emerging mHealth and eHealth interventions for serious mental illness: a review of the literature
Naslund, J. A., Marsch, L. A., McHugo, G. J., & Bartels, S. J. (2015) · Journal of Mental Health · doi:10.3109/09638237.2015.1019054 · Cited by 327 · see citing works
Self-citationSiegel, P. Z., Brackbill, R. M., & Heath, G. W. (1995) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.85.5.706 · Cited by 326 · see citing works
Physical Activity Patterns in Adults With Severe Mental Illness
Daumit, G. L., Goldberg, R. W., Anthony, C. B., Dickerson, F., Brown, C. H., Kreyenbuhl, J. A., Wohlheiter, K. A., & Dixon, L. B. (2005) · The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease · doi:10.1097/01.nmd.0000180737.85895.60 · Cited by 306 · see citing works
Penalized Functional Regression
Goldsmith, J., Bobb, J. F., Crainiceanu, C. M., Caffo, B. S., & Reich, D. S. (2011) · Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics · doi:10.1198/jcgs.2010.10007 · Cited by 289 · see citing works
How sedentary are people with psychosis? A systematic review and meta-analysis
Stubbs, B., Williams, J., Gaughran, F., & Craig, T. (2016) · Schizophrenia Research · doi:10.1016/j.schres.2016.01.034 · Cited by 284 · see citing works
USSHER, M. H., Stanbury, L., Cheeseman, V., & Faulkner, G. (2007) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/appi.ps.58.3.405 · Cited by 265 · see citing works
Green, C., Yarborough, B. J. H., Leo, M., Yarborough, M. T., Stumbo, S. P., Janoff, S., Perrin, N., Nichols, G., & Stevens, V. (2014) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.14020173 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
Bartels, S. J., Pratt, S. I., Aschbrenner, K. A., Barré, L. K., Jue, K., Wolfe, R. S., Xie, H., McHugo, G. J., Santos, M. M., Williams, G. E., et al. (2013) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/appi.ps.003622012 · Cited by 188 · see citing works
Self-citationMcDevitt, J., Snyder, M., Miller, A., & Wilbur, J. (2006) · Journal of Nursing Scholarship · doi:10.1111/j.1547-5069.2006.00077.x · Cited by 188 · see citing works
USSHER, M. H., Stanbury, L., Cheeseman, V., et al. (2007) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/ps.2007.58.3.405 · Cited by 182 · see citing works
Reproducibility of the 6-minute Walk Test in Obese Adults
Beriault, K., Carpentier, A. C., Gagnon, C., Ménard, J., Baillargeon, J., Ardilouze, J., & Langlois, M. (2009) · International Journal of Sports Medicine · doi:10.1055/s-0029-1231043 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
Bartels, S., Pratt, S., Aschbrenner, K., Barre, L., Naslund, J., Wolfe, R. S., Xie, H.-Y., McHugo, G., Jimenez, D. E., Jue, K., et al. (2014) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.14030357 · Cited by 161 · see citing works
Self-citationThe six‐minute walk test in outpatients with obesity: reproducibility and known group validity
Larsson, U. E., & Reynisdottir, S. (2008) · Physiotherapy Research International · doi:10.1002/pri.398 · Cited by 146 · see citing works
Naslund, J. A., Aschbrenner, K. A., Barre, L. K., & Bartels, S. J. (2015) · Telemedicine and e-Health · doi:10.1089/tmj.2014.0105 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Self-citationHow people with serious mental illness use smartphones, mobile apps, and social media.
Naslund, J. A., Aschbrenner, K. A., & Bartels, S. J. (2016) · Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal · doi:10.1037/prj0000207 · Cited by 126 · see citing works
Self-citationMobile Behavioral Sensing for Outpatients and Inpatients With Schizophrenia
Ben‐Zeev, D., Wang, R., Abdullah, S., Brian, R., Scherer, E. A., Mistler, L. A., Hauser, M., Kane, J. M., Campbell, A. T., & Choudhury, T. (2015) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/appi.ps.201500130 · Cited by 125 · see citing works
Self-citationWearable Devices and Smartphones for Activity Tracking Among People with Serious Mental Illness
Naslund, J., Aschbrenner, K., & Bartels, S. (2016) · Mental Health and Physical Activity · doi:10.1016/j.mhpa.2016.02.001 · Cited by 121 · see citing works
Self-citationTechnology-Assisted Weight Loss Interventions in Primary Care: A Systematic Review
Levine, D. M., Savarimuthu, S., Squires, A., Nicholson, J., & Jay, M. (2015) · Journal of General Internal Medicine · doi:10.1007/s11606-014-2987-6 · Cited by 105 · see citing works
Aschbrenner, K., Naslund, J., Shevenell, M. D., Mueser, K., & Bartels, S. (2016) · Psychiatric quarterly · doi:10.1007/s11126-015-9395-x · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Self-citationMethapatara, W., & Srisurapanont, M. (2011) · Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences · doi:10.1111/j.1440-1819.2011.02225.x · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Barriers to uptake of physical activity in community-based patients with schizophrenia
Johnstone, R., Nicol, K., Donaghy, M. E., & Lawrie, S. M. (2009) · Journal of Mental Health · doi:10.3109/09638230903111114 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Vancampfort, D., Probst, M., Sweers, K., Maurissen, K., Knapen, J., & Binder, M. D. (2010) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2010.11.027 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Aschbrenner, K. A., Naslund, J. A., Shevenell, M., Kinney, E., & Bartels, S. J. (2016) · Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease · doi:10.1097/nmd.0000000000000530 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Self-citationLee, P. H., Nan, H., Yu, Y., McDowell, I., Leung, G. M., & Lam, T. (2012) · Journal of science and medicine in sport · doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2012.10.005 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Browne, J., Mihas, P., & Penn, D. L. (2015) · Community Mental Health Journal · doi:10.1007/s10597-015-9896-y · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Exercise improves physical capacity in obese patients with schizophrenia: Pilot study
Strassnig, M., Newcomer, J. W., & Harvey, P. D. (2012) · Schizophrenia Research · doi:10.1016/j.schres.2012.08.011 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Firth J Cotter J Torous J Bucci S Firth JA Yung AR Mobile phone ownership and endorsement of “mHealth” among people with psychosis: a meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies Schizophrenia Bulletin 2016 42 2 448 455 26400871 PMC4753601
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Meyer, N., Kerz, M., Folarin, A., Joyce, D. W., Jackson, R., Karr, C., Dobson, R., & MacCabe, J. (2018) · JMIR mHealth and uHealth · doi:10.2196/mhealth.8292 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Naslund, J. A., & Aschbrenner, K. A. (2019) · Evidence Based Mental Health · doi:10.1136/ebmental-2018-300034 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Self-citationJameel, L., Valmaggia, L., Barnes, G., & Cella, M. (2022) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.11.033 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
McKeon, G., Steel, Z., Wells, R., Newby, J., Hadzi-Pavlovic, D., Vancampfort, D., & Rosenbaum, S. (2021) · JMIR Formative Research · doi:10.2196/23432 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Korman, N., Fox, H., Skinner, T., Dodd, C., Suetani, S., Chapman, J., Parker, S., Dark, F., Collins, C., Rosenbaum, S., et al. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00319 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Gómez-de-Regil, L., Avila-Nava, A., Gutierrez-Solis, A. L., & Lugo, R. (2020) · Journal of Healthcare Engineering · doi:10.1155/2020/9317179 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
“[46, 47], and their colleagues included apps to monitor physical activity alone or with dietary intake: MyFitnessPal, Fitbit, and Nike FuelBan; the last two were designed to synchronize with their corresponding physical devices.”
BackgroundInfluentialArnautovska, U., Ritchie, G., Soole, R., Menon, A., Korman, N., Milton, A., Varnfield, M., Kelly, J., Jansen, P., Baker, A., et al. (2025) · Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment · doi:10.2147/ndt.s513272 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“14,15 Mobile health (mHealth)—delivered via mobile phone technologies, including smartphone apps and Short Message Service (SMS) text messages—is a cost-effective and highly accessible approach to improving consumer experiences and health outcomes, 16 and has been associated with improved illness…”
- Authors
- Naslund, J. A., Aschbrenner, K. A., Scherer, E. A., McHugo, G. J., Marsch, L. A., & Bartels, S. J.
- Affiliations
- Dartmouth College (US)
- Corresponding author
- Naslund, John A.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Psychiatry Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-10
- Volume
- 244
- Pages
- 139-144
- ISSN
- 0165-1781 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5026936
- OpenAlex
- W2463152213
- Cited by
- 86
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 11.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychiatry Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH089811-01)
- United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research Center (U48DP005018)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Keywords
- wearable devices, Fitbit, mobile health, behavioral weight loss, severe mental illness, physical activity, step count, fitness, lifestyle intervention, schizophrenia spectrum disorders, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, obesity, cardiovascular risk
- MeSH terms
- Diet, Healthy, Fitness Trackers, Adult, Mental Disorders, Bipolar Disorder, Cardiovascular Diseases, Depressive Disorder, Major, Major Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Life Style, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Obesity, Risk Factors, Schizophrenia, Weight Loss, Exercise, Treatment Outcome, Telemedicine, Weight Reduction Programs
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
