Development and feasibility testing of a smart phone based attentive eating intervention
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Attentive eating means eating devoid of distraction and increasing awareness and memory for food being consumed. Encouraging individuals to eat more attentively could help reduce calorie intake, as a strong evidence base suggests that memory and awareness of food being consumed substantially influence energy intake. METHODS: The development and feasibility testing of a smartphone based attentive eating intervention is reported. Informed by models of behavioral change, a smartphone application was developed. Feasibility was tested in twelve overweight and obese volunteers, sampled from university staff. Participants used the application during a four week trial and semi-structured interviews were conducted to assess acceptability and to identify barriers to usage. We also recorded adherence by downloading application usage data from participants' phones at the end of the trial. RESULTS: Adherence data indicated that participants used the application regularly. Participants also felt the application was easy to use and lost weight during the trial. Thematic analysis indicated that participants felt that the application raised their awareness of what they were eating. Analysis also indicated barriers to using a smartphone application to change dietary behavior. CONCLUSIONS: An attentive eating based intervention using smartphone technology is feasible and testing of its effectiveness for dietary change and weight loss is warranted.
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Previous research has highlighted the benefits of stand-alone app-based interventions on individuals' awareness of eating behaviors and physical activity levels.
“Previous research has highlighted the benefits of stand-alone app-based interventions on individuals’ awareness of their eating behaviors and physical activity levels [15,16,42,45,46].”
From Understanding Usage of a Hybrid Website and Smartphone App for Weight Management: A Mixed-Methods Study (2014) · cites this paper as [16]
Previous research reveals positive usage and views of app-based self-monitoring interventions.
“This contrasts with previous research revealing positive usage and views of app-based self-monitoring interventions [16,17,44]”
From Understanding Usage of a Hybrid Website and Smartphone App for Weight Management: A Mixed-Methods Study (2014) · cites this paper as [16]
Ability to integrate app use into one's daily routine is an important potential facilitator and/or barrier to intervention usage.
“The impact of users’ availability to interact with the app and take advantage of free moments echoes reports that ability to integrate app use into one’s daily routine is an important potential facilitator and/or barrier to intervention usage [16,24,32,46].”
From Understanding Usage of a Hybrid Website and Smartphone App for Weight Management: A Mixed-Methods Study (2014) · cites this paper as [16]
The sample size for feasibility testing was determined based on previously published feasibility studies testing mobile phone technology to promote behavior change.
“The sample size was determined based on previously published feasibility studies testing mobile phone technology to promote behavior change [39,40].”
The sample size for usability testing was based on previously published development and feasibility studies testing mobile phone technology to promote behavior change.
“The sample size was based on previously published development and feasibility studies testing mobile phone technology to promote behavior change [39,40].”
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- Authors
- Robinson, E., Higgs, S., Daley, A. J., Jolly, K., Lycett, D., Lewis, A., & Aveyard, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- University of Birmingham (GB)
- Coventry University (GB)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Robinson, Eric
- ORCID
- Venue
- BMC Public Health
- Published
- 2013-07-09
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 639-639
- ISSN
- 1471-2458 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3733753
- OpenAlex
- W1992755183
- Cited by
- 99
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 6
- FWCI
- 17.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMC Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (publishedVersion)
- Coventry University Open Collections (Coventry university) (submittedVersion)
- Pure (Coventry University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- The Open Collections (Coventry University) (submittedVersion)
- BMC Public Health
- Funders
- United Kingdom Clinical Research Collaboration
- Cancer Research UK
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (SPCR-018, SPCR-001)
- British Heart Foundation
- Medical Research Council (MR/K023195/1, MR/K00414X/1)
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/G007489/1)
- NIHR School for Primary Care Research
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Keywords
- mobile application, dietary behavior change, overweight, obesity, weight loss, dietary behavior, food awareness, energy intake, technology adoption barriers, intervention feasibility, acceptability
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Energy Intake, Feasibility Studies, Feeding Behavior, Female, United Kingdom, Health Promotion, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Male, Middle Aged, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Surveys and Questionnaires, Risk Reduction Behavior, Cell Phone, Weight Reduction Programs
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