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Smartphone apps for overweight and obesity: current evidence in a fast-moving field

Part of: BJPsych Advances Cochrane Corner and Round the Corner Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2025

Isabel Leach Open the ORCID record for Isabel Leach [Opens in a new window]  and
Grace Pike
Isabel Leach*
Affiliation:
A core psychiatry trainee within Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, Aylesbury, UK. She has an interest in general adult psychiatry, particularly the interface between general medicine and mental health conditions
Grace Pike
Affiliation:
A core psychiatry trainee within Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Aylesbury, UK. She has an interest in research in the area of child and adolescent mental health, neurodevelopmental disorders and eating disorders.
*
Correspondence Isabel Leach. Email: [email protected]
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Summary

Overweight and obesity are growing health concerns globally. Technological advances drive interest in smartphone applications as possible health behaviour interventions to promote lifestyle change in these conditions. This article critically appraises a Cochrane Review of 18 studies (2703 participants) of smartphone app interventions for overweight or obesity in adolescents and adults and considers its relevance to clinical practice and research. The review's results suggest that there may be minimal benefit to the use of smartphone apps, but the evidence is very uncertain, lacking high-quality, replicable studies.

Keywords

Obesityapplicationbehaviour changecritical appraisalmental health
Type
Round the corner
Information
BJPsych Advances , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , March 2025 , pp. 68 - 72
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists

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Footnotes

Commentary on… Mobile health (m-health) smartphone interventions for adolescents and adults with overweight or obesity (Cochrane Corner). See this issue.

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