Digital Weight Management Interventions: A review of commercial solutions and survey analysis of user needs

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Hadzidedic, Suncica, Wang, Jingyun, Adeyemo, Victor Elijah, Sanders, George, Westermann, Grant
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Hadzidedic, Suncica
Wang, Jingyun
Adeyemo, Victor Elijah
Sanders, George
Westermann, Grant
author_facet Hadzidedic, Suncica
Wang, Jingyun
Adeyemo, Victor Elijah
Sanders, George
Westermann, Grant
contents Obesity is a global health challenge. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between 1990 and 2022, adult obesity more than doubled. Weight management interventions (WMIs) support individuals in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight through dietary guidance, physical activity promotion and behavioural counselling. However, traditional WMIs often have limited accessibility. Digital WMIs or DWMIs are delivered via websites or smartphone applications and provide scalable and cost-effective alternatives. However, user needs for digital services and their prevalence in the existing commercial solutions remain underexplored. Hence, our study systematically identified 26 commercial DWMIs to identify their features, services, and data collection practices. Additionally, we performed a user needs analysis by recruiting 207 individuals involved in a real-life WMI. Our findings indicated that DWMIs integrated self-monitoring, goal setting, and behaviour change strategies, yet lack social support, virtual reality applications and adaptive personalisation. WMI clients prefer smartphone Apps and fitness trackers for tracking weight management progress and have varying levels of comfort in using digital resources. The presented results serve as recommendations for future directions in the design and implementation of services for DWMIs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_06181
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Digital Weight Management Interventions: A review of commercial solutions and survey analysis of user needs
Hadzidedic, Suncica
Wang, Jingyun
Adeyemo, Victor Elijah
Sanders, George
Westermann, Grant
Human-Computer Interaction
Obesity is a global health challenge. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between 1990 and 2022, adult obesity more than doubled. Weight management interventions (WMIs) support individuals in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight through dietary guidance, physical activity promotion and behavioural counselling. However, traditional WMIs often have limited accessibility. Digital WMIs or DWMIs are delivered via websites or smartphone applications and provide scalable and cost-effective alternatives. However, user needs for digital services and their prevalence in the existing commercial solutions remain underexplored. Hence, our study systematically identified 26 commercial DWMIs to identify their features, services, and data collection practices. Additionally, we performed a user needs analysis by recruiting 207 individuals involved in a real-life WMI. Our findings indicated that DWMIs integrated self-monitoring, goal setting, and behaviour change strategies, yet lack social support, virtual reality applications and adaptive personalisation. WMI clients prefer smartphone Apps and fitness trackers for tracking weight management progress and have varying levels of comfort in using digital resources. The presented results serve as recommendations for future directions in the design and implementation of services for DWMIs.
title Digital Weight Management Interventions: A review of commercial solutions and survey analysis of user needs
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.06181