Designing a Website to Help People Keep Weight Off
Author Information
Author(s): Victor J Stevens, Kristine L Funk, Phillip J Brantley, Thomas P Erlinger, Valerie H Myers, Catherine M Champagne, Alan Bauck, Carmen D Samuel-Hodge, Jack F Hollis
Primary Institution: Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research
Hypothesis
Can an interactive website effectively support long-term weight loss maintenance?
Conclusion
The study found that an interactive website can help maintain high levels of user engagement for at least one year.
Supporting Evidence
- Over 80% of participants continued to use the website after 12 months.
- Participants averaged 35 weeks of website log-ins during the first year.
- Automated email and phone reminders were effective in prompting website use.
Takeaway
This study created a website to help people who lost weight keep it off, and most users kept coming back to the site for a whole year.
Methodology
The website was developed over a year by a team of experts and included features like social support and automated reminders.
Limitations
Weight loss data will not be available until mid-2008, and the study's findings are based on preliminary website usage data.
Participant Demographics
{"mean_age":56,"percentage_female":63,"percentage_african_american":38}
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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