@Article{info:doi/10.2196/jmir.931,
author="Stevens, Victor J
and Funk, Kristine L
and Brantley, Phillip J
and Erlinger, Thomas P
and Myers, Valerie H
and Champagne, Catherine M
and Bauck, Alan
and Samuel-Hodge, Carmen D
and Hollis, Jack F",
title="Design and Implementation of an Interactive Website to Support Long-Term Maintenance of Weight Loss",
journal="J Med Internet Res",
year="2008",
month="Jan",
day="25",
volume="10",
number="1",
pages="e1",
keywords="Internet; website design; behavioral interventions; weight loss; weight maintenance",
abstract="Background:  For most individuals, long-term maintenance of weight loss requires long-term, supportive intervention. Internet-based weight loss maintenance programs offer considerable potential for meeting this need. Careful design processes are required to maximize adherence and minimize attrition. Objective: This paper describes the development, implementation and use of a Web-based intervention program designed to help those who have recently lost weight sustain their weight loss over 1 year. Methods: The weight loss maintenance website was developed over a 1-year period by an interdisciplinary team of public health researchers, behavior change intervention experts, applications developers, and interface designers. Key interactive features of the final site include social support, self-monitoring, written guidelines for diet and physical activity, links to appropriate websites, supportive tools for behavior change, check-in accountability, tailored reinforcement messages, and problem solving and relapse prevention training. The weight loss maintenance program included a reminder system (automated email and telephone messages) that prompted participants to return to the website if they missed their check-in date. If there was no log-in response to the email and telephone automated prompts, a staff member called the participant. We tracked the proportion of participants with at least one log-in per month, and analyzed log-ins as a result of automated prompts. Results: The mean age of the 348 participants enrolled in an ongoing randomized trial and assigned to use the website was 56 years; 63{\%} were female, and 38{\%} were African American. While weight loss data will not be available until mid-2008, website use remained high during the first year with over 80{\%} of the participants still using the website during month 12. During the first 52 weeks, participants averaged 35 weeks with at least one log-in. Email and telephone prompts appear to be very effective at helping participants sustain ongoing website use. Conclusions: Developing interactive websites is expensive, complex, and time consuming. We found that extensive paper prototyping well in advance of programming and a versatile product manager who could work with project staff at all levels of detail were essential to keeping the development process efficient.  Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov NCT00054925 ",
issn="1438-8871",
doi="10.2196/jmir.931",
url="http://www.jmir.org/2008/1/e1/",
url="https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.931",
url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18244892"
}