Abstract
BackgroundMore than one-fourth of Australian adolescents are overweight or obese, with obesity in adolescents strongly persisting into adulthood. Recent evidence suggests that the mid-teen years present a final window of opportunity to prevent irreversible damage to the cardiovascular system. As lifestyle behaviors may change with increased autonomy during adolescence, this life stage is an ideal time to intervene and promote healthy eating and physical activity behaviors, well-being, and self-esteem. As teenagers are prolific users and innate adopters of new technologies, app-based programs may be suitable for the promotion of healthy lifestyle behaviors and goal setting training.ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the reach, engagement, user experience, and satisfaction of the new app-based and Web-based Health Online for Teens (HOT) program in a sample of Australian adolescents above a healthy weight (ie, overweight or obese) and their parents.MethodsHOT is a 14-week program for adolescents and their parents. The program is delivered online through the Moodle app–based and website-based learning environment and aims to promote adolescents’ lifestyle behavior change in line with Australian Dietary Guidelines and Australia’s Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for Young People (aged 13-17 years). HOT aims to build parental and peer support during the program to support adolescents with healthy lifestyle behavior change.ResultsData collection for this study is ongoing. To date, 35 adolescents and their parents have participated in one of 3 groups.ConclusionsHOT is a new online-only program for Australian adolescents and their parents that aims to reduce cardiovascular disease risk factors. This protocol paper describes the HOT program in detail, along with the methods to measure reach, outcomes, engagement, user experiences, and program satisfaction.Trial RegistrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12618000465257; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=374771International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/13340
Highlights
The issue: Adolescent obesityCurrently, more than a quarter of Australian adolescents aged 14 –to 17 years are overweight or obese, which is significantly higher than 20 years ago [1]
This study protocol paper describes the Health Online for Teens (HOT) program in detail, along with the methods to measure reach, outcomes, engagement, user experiences, and program satisfaction
ClinicalTrial: This study was prospectively registered in the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR, http://www.anzctr.org.au) on 29 March 2018 with registration number: ACTRN12618000465257
Summary
The issue: Adolescent obesityCurrently, more than a quarter of Australian adolescents aged 14 –to 17 years are overweight or obese, which is significantly higher than 20 years ago [1]. Adolescent obesity is associated with considerable short and long-term health consequences, such as increased risk of heart disease and diabetes [6, 7] These risk factors have been shown to track into adulthood [2] which, in addition to the risk of being an obese adult, indicate a double burden of adolescent obesity on cardiovascular disease risk. As lifestyle behaviours may change with increased autonomy during adolescence, this lifestage is an ideal time to intervene and promote healthy diet and activity behaviours, wellbeing and self-esteem. As teenagers are prolific users and innate adopters of online technologies, app-based programs may be suitable for the promotion of healthy lifestyle behaviours and goal setting training
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