Reviewing the utilization of mobile technologies to survey childhood obesity

Background: Childhood overweight and obesity is a serious health issue impacting about one third of American children and adolescents, and about 10% of children worldwide. The US has traditionally used measures such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to track weight status and risk for chronic diseases. While these surveys endeavor to be representative, they require significant time and money, and do not capture the majority of the population. This study therefore reviewed novel surveillance ideas to observe a greater proportion of the population, and discover targets for intervention. Methods: PubMed, Google Scholar, and Google.com were searched for articles involving novel surveillance methods, including mobile phones, web-based surveys, and applications. Hits involving infectious diseases were excluded. Results: The World Health Organization (WHO) has prioritized m-Health, or health surveillance using mobile technologies, for the surveillance of chronic disease, but programs have not yet been implemented widely. Magpi, formerly known as EpiSurveyor, is one of the largest platforms for collecting health data in developing countries, particularly Africa, and is currently used by the WHO. However, it is unclear how much data is disseminated, and how this and other mobile health trackers can be adopted by larger audiences. Privacy is a major concern for implementing more wide-scale surveillance measures. Conclusions: While mobile phones and web-based surveys show promise for increasing use in epidemiological surveillance, privacy and adoption measures must first be addressed. Mobile technologies can revolutionize surveillance, and should be further pilot-tested and evaluated in order to ensure best practices.