# Social Mobile Approaches to Reduce Weight (SMART) 2.0

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · 2021 · $733,345

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Approximately 60.3% of those aged 20 to 39 years are overweight or obese, and excess weight gain in young
adulthood is associated with future weight gain, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and psychological distress.
Consequently, it has been suggested that treating overweight and obesity in young adults may prevent chronic
disease in middle age. Relatively little is known about how to promote weight loss in this population without
using costly in-person programs that have limited scalability. For several years, our group has investigated the
efficacy of interventions that rely on ubiquitous technologies to meet young adults in the virtual spaces they
frequently inhabit and use these venues to promote weight loss through physical activity and healthy diet. We
now propose to conduct a parallel-group randomized controlled trial among 642 overweight/obese university
students aged 18-35 years in San Diego. Participants will be randomly allocated to either 1) SMART 2.0 with
technology and personal health coaching; 2) SMART 2.0 with technology alone; or 3) a control group. The
interventions will be delivered for 24 months, and they are designed to maximize efficacy in a scalable manner.
Intervention content will be delivered using a fully integrated system of modalities: 1) Fitbit, 2) MyFitnessPal, 3)
SMS, 4) multiple social media streams, 5) a website with blog, and 6) email. Consumer-level devices and apps
will be used to self-monitor behavior, and their data will be passively acquired in real-time. Algorithms will be
used to automatically deliver interactive text messages to support individually tailored goal setting,
performance feedback, and goal review in a highly dynamic style that reflects participants' behavioral progress
towards achieving a minimum goal of 5% weight loss. Participants will be encouraged to share their data and
behavioral progress with others via social networking tools built into the apps. Social network mechanisms of
influence will be used both within the study-space, to elicit participant-to-participant and health coach-to-
participant support, as well as outside the study-space, to invoke social support and accountability from strong
ties known to be important for long-term behavior change. Additionally, one group will receive monthly
technology-mediated, real-time personal health coaching that is theory- and evidence-based. Our primary aim
is to determine the efficacy of the SMART 2.0 interventions to improve weight over 24 months. Our secondary
aims are to evaluate to evaluate 1) differences between groups at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months in anthropometric
and physiological outcomes, physical activity, diet, sleep, self-esteem, body image, anxiety, depression, and
the frequency and composition of participants' online communication about weight-related behaviors; 2) the
dose response (i.e., quantified engagement with modalities) of the interventions; 3) the usability and
acceptability of the intervention; 4) potent...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10105349
- **Project number:** 5R01HL136769-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Eric Hekler
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $733,345
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-02-19 → 2023-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10105349

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10105349, Social Mobile Approaches to Reduce Weight (SMART) 2.0 (5R01HL136769-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10105349. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*