Pil Lindgreen

Patient use of a self-monitoring app during eating disorder treatment: Naturalistic longitudinal cohort study

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DOI

Objective: To explore patients’ use of the self-monitoring app Recovery Record during 26 weeks of naturalistic eating disorder treatment. Methods: Selected patient characteristics at baseline were explored as predictors of app use using linear regression. Patients were grouped according to diagnosis (anorexia versus bulimia), and mixed-effects analyses were used to explore differences in app use between diagnoses across four time periods (weeks 1–4; weeks 5–8; weeks 9–12; weeks 13–26). Results: Eighty-four patients were included of which 41 had anorexia and 43 had bulimia. The total number of logs varied greatly (mean (SD): 592 (628.50)), and patient app activity almost ceased at week 13. Increasing age and no previous eating disorder treatment predicted increased app activity (p =.007; p =.039, respectively). Patients with anorexia logged over four times more often than patients with bulimia in the last time period (median (CI): 4.27 (1.28;14.31); p =.018). Time predicted declining app use (all p ≤.007). Conclusion: Future research on long-term app engagement should investigate associations between patients’ app use and changes in their eating disorder symptom severity over time.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere02039
JournalBrain and Behavior
Volume11
Issue4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC

Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

    Research areas

  • eating disorders; smartphone; anorexia; bulimia

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