%0 Journal Article
%@ 1438-8871
%I Gunther Eysenbach
%V 10
%N 1
%P e1
%T Design and Implementation of an Interactive Website to Support Long-Term Maintenance of Weight Loss
%A Stevens,Victor J
%A Funk,Kristine L
%A Brantley,Phillip J
%A Erlinger,Thomas P
%A Myers,Valerie H
%A Champagne,Catherine M
%A Bauck,Alan
%A Samuel-Hodge,Carmen D
%A Hollis,Jack F
%+ Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente, 3800 N Interstate Ave, Portland, OR 97227, USA, +1 503 335 2443, Kristine.funk@kpchr.org
%K Internet
%K website design
%K behavioral interventions
%K weight loss
%K weight maintenance
%D 2008
%7 25.1.2008
%9 Original Paper
%J J Med Internet Res
%G English
%X 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 
%M 18244892
%R 10.2196/jmir.931
%U http://www.jmir.org/2008/1/e1/
%U https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.931
%U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18244892