Adherence
Prescribing a free, widely-used smartphone calorie-tracking app (MyFitnessPal) to overweight primary care patients for 6 months does not produce significant weight loss compared to usual care.
Giving patients a calorie-tracking app like MyFitnessPal is not a substitute for counseling or motivation. In this study, most users stopped using the app within a month because they found it tedious or were too busy. This intervention did not lead to weight loss. Clinicians should assess a patient's readiness and willingness to perform daily self-monitoring before prescribing such tools, as the app alone is insufficient for most patients.
The principal finding of our 6-month trial was that delivery of the MFP app to overweight patients in primary care did not result in increased weight loss compared with usual primary care.
Why this rating
Randomized controlled trial with a reasonable sample size (n=212), though limited by high attrition (32% intervention, 19% control) and contamination (13% control used the app).
Source
Effectiveness of a Smartphone Application for Weight Loss Compared With Usual Care in Overweight Primary Care Patients
Brian Yoshio Laing et al. · Annals of Internal Medicine · 2014
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