Shapa Health Extends Reach Beyond Adults to Tackle Adolescent Weight Management in UTMB Health Clinical Trial
CUPERTINO, Calif., April 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Shapa, a leading Silicon Valley based health Technology company, announced today their platform will be part of a clinical study undertaken by the University of Texas, Medical Branch (UTMB).
Adolescent obesity is a serious problem, which per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention affects 18.5% of children in the United States. More startling is that the obesity rate in adolescents has more than tripled in the past 40 years, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Shapa is a pioneer in the treatment and prevention of conditions like obesity, and through this study, the company can accelerate its mission of helping more people live better, healthier lives.
The study labeled "Telephone Counseling and Numberless Scales to Overcome Barriers to Adolescent Weight Loss" will aim to "test(s) the feasibility and acceptability of a numberless behavioral digital scale (BDS) intervention combined with motivational interviewing (MI) to affect lifestyle changes to promote weight loss in adolescents who are obese." Previous studies from Shapa, as well as recent user data, have proven that over 85% of users continue to weigh themselves daily and lose or maintain weight after 9 months of engagement with Shapa.
Co-founder and renowned behavioral economist Dan Ariely reminds us that "Shapa Health's technology has already proven effective not only in our own customer studies; but through continuous long-term engagement, our platform continues to be a great addition to existing clinical studies to show the importance of numerous fuels and frictions that must be combined together or removed to meaningfully change long term behaviors that affect our health and wellbeing."
Dr. Kanika Bowen-Jallow, the lead investigator in this study, is a pediatric surgeon from UTMB Health who explains: "Shapa's technology will be used in the study along with modified motivational interviewing for adolescents screened at need for weight loss by their healthcare provider. This interventional study will be conducted as a randomized clinical pilot trial, enrolling about 20 participants with the intention of determining if numberless feedback from the Shapa platform & weekly motivational interviewing will result in weight loss as measured through the Shapa platform."
CEO Nati Lavi says: "I'm thrilled that UTMB approached us to include our platform for this study and we're confident that the results will teach us how to improve weight management in a completely new segment of the population that is now affected by obesity, metabolic disease and early onset diabetes."
The results of the 24 week study are expected to be published in January 2021.
About Shapa
Shapa is based in Silicon Valley and was co-founded by social scientist and Duke University professor Dan Ariely as an innovative approach to chronic disease management and prevention. Shapa's mission is to help people achieve their health goals by bringing to life Ariely's cutting edge insights using human-compatible design, big data, artificial intelligence, and mobile technology. Shapa previously announced partnerships with several large global health care providers. join the Shapa community by visiting https://www.myshapa.com/
About UTMB Health
For more than 125 years, UTMB has stood with Texas--training the health care workforce; helping make the state a leader in advancing the understanding and treatment of illness and injury; serving as a major provider of healthcare for Texans and their families; and innovating the future of how care is delivered.
UTMB opened in 1891 as the nation's first public medical school and hospital under unified leadership--already a pioneer. What began as one hospital and medical school building in Galveston is now a major academic health sciences center of global influence, with medical, nursing, health professions and graduate biomedical schools.
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