Long-term results of a digital treatment tool as an add-on to pediatric obesity lifestyle treatment: a 3-year pragmatic clinical trial

Abstract

The integration of mobile health technology with physical visits shows promising one-year treatment outcomes, but long-term evidence is lacking. To assess three-year treatment outcomes for patients utilizing the digital treatment tool Evira in combination with physical visits, compared with standard obesity care. In a pragmatic trial, children with obesity aged 4.0–17.9 years receiving digi-physical treatment with Evira (n = 107) were compared with a group receiving standard treatment (n = 321). Evira comprises a digitless body scale for home-weighing, a mobile application, and a web-based clinic interface, enabling easy family-clinic communication and continuous visual treatment feedback. At the three-year follow-up, the adjusted average change in body mass index Z-score was –0.29 [95% confidence interval: –0.40, –0.18] units in the digi-physical treatment group vs. –0.12 [–0.21, –0.03] in the standard treatment group, p = 0.02, and 31.8% vs. 18.7% obtained obesity remission respectively, p = 0.0046. Over a three-year period, the digi-physical treatment generated superior treatment effect and higher obesity remission rate than standard treatment.