A digital intervention for australian adolescents above a healthy weight (health online for teens): Protocol for an implementation and user experience study

Abstract

Background: More 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. Objective: This 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. Methods: HOT 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. Results: Data collection for this study is ongoing. To date, 35 adolescents and their parents have participated in one of 3 groups. Conclusions: HOT 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.