A SMARTPHONE application, alongside standard care, effectively reduced gestational weight gain among pregnant patients with overweight or obesity in a new cluster-randomised clinical trial.
The Lifestyle, Eating, and Activity in Pregnancy (LEAP) intervention uses a smartphone app, wireless scale, and activity tracker to promote a healthy diet and increased physical activity.
Excessive Gestational Weight Gain
Excessive gestational weight gain occurs in 50% of pregnant patients with overweight or obesity. It is associated with several perinatal complications.
Smartphone Application Intervention
The study included 58 clinicians, who cared for 1,265 patients: 677 in the intervention group and 588 receiving only standard care.
Clinicians assigned to the mobile health intervention cohort received motivational interviewing guidance for discussing gestational weight gain.
Their patients received personalised, automated feedback on gestational weight gain and physical activity via a smartphone app.
It also included a wireless scale and activity tracker, 13 weekly education topics, and included either, or both, a stepwise chat and phone support from a lifestyle coach.
This treatment pathway was prescribed to those in the intervention cohort experiencing accelerated gestational weight gain.
Results were analysed from 1st May 2024 to 12th February 2026.
Improvements in Gestational Weight Gain
The smartphone app reduced the mean weekly rate of, as well as total, gestational weight gain.
Patients in the intervention group who were most adherent to the self-weighing were estimated to have the largest improvements in gestational weight gain.
There were also fewer patients in the intervention group who exceeded the Institute of Medicine’s guidelines for the weekly rate of gestational weight gain, compared with the standard care group.
However, less than 20% of participants sustained high engagement with the app throughout the study, highlighting challenges in digital and behavioural health interventions.
Reference
Hedderson MM et al. Adaptive mobile health intervention to reduce excess gestational weight gain: a cluster-randomized clinical trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2026;DOI:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.8007.
Featured image: WavebreakMediaMicro on Adobe Stock
