In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adult, individuals aged 18 years and older, worldwide were considered overweight, of these, over 650 million were obese1. Obesity and being overweight is defined as excessive fat accumulations which can affect a person’s health. Obesity has a clearly measurable impact on both a person’s physical and mental health, and their health related quality of life2. It is also a known cause of chronic health conditions3, including: cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, obesity related cancers, osteoarthritis and psychological disturbance. These resultant conditions generate much of the morbidity and years of life lost associated with increasing levels of obesity4.
Numerous studies have shown that daily or weekly self-weighing alone, or when combined with other self-monitoring strategies, is beneficial for improving not only weight outcomes, but also psychological well-being in overweight or obese adults5.
Digital health technologies can help obese individuals track and lose weight more effectively. QardioBase 2 is a smartphone-connected body composition scale designed to provide active feedback and goal setting to encourage weight loss. The device works with a smartphone app that centrally stores users’ data and allows the individual to monitor their progress and set personal goals with ease.
The aim of the study was to evaluate the weight difference of QardioBase 2 users with a BMI of ≥30 over a 32 week period and to establish whether using QardioBase 2, a smart scale was effective in enabling weight loss over a period of time.
In summary, we examined a large sample of users using QardioBase 2, a smartphone-connected scale and body analyzer device, and with a BMI of ≥30 kg/m2. Over a study period of 32 weeks, 66.1% of users lost an average of 8.92 kg in total weight. Amongst the group that lost weight, 49.5% of those users lost at least 200g in fat mass, with an average fat mass loss of 7.9 kg per user. These results, along with positive user experience survey of QardioBase 2 user-centric features, suggest that QardioBase 2 can enable weight loss and a reduction of fat mass amongst its users.
Furthermore, our comparison between the weight-loss associated with the use of QardioBase 2 and traditional scales indicates that, on average, QardioBase 2 users lost 3.6 times more weight. This is an important finding, which suggests that the unique properties of the QardioBase 2 Smart Scale, especially its “smart” features, are associated with a greater rate of weight loss than would be expected with the use of a traditional scale without these “smart” features.
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Looking to implement a remote patient monitoring solution? With QardioMD, you can get access to a full remote monitoring end-to-end service to easily track patient data, view patient trends, and make efficient diagnoses. To learn more how RPM with Qardio works, speak with a product expert here.
1 World Health Organisation (2019). Who.int. Retrieved 14 May, 2019, from https://www.who.int/news-room/- fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight
2 Cole, T.J & Lobstein, T. (2012). Extended international (IOTF) body mass index cut‐offs for thinness, overweight and obesity. The Authors Pediatric Obesity © 2012 International Association for the Study of Obesity, 7(4):284-94
3 Sturm R. The effects of obesity, smoking, and drinking on medical problems and costs. Health Aff. 2002;21:245–253. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.21.2.245.
4 Dixon, J. .B. (2010). The effect of obesity on health outcomes. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, 316(2), 104-108.
5 Sturm R. The effects of obesity, smoking, and drinking on medical problems and costs. Health Aff. 2002;21:245–253. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.21.2.245.
