Group Lifestyle Intervention With Mobile Health for Young Adults With Serious Mental Illness: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective: Evidence-based lifestyle interventions tailored to young adults with serious mental illness are needed to reduce theft cardiometabolic risk. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a group lifestyle intervention ("PeerFIT") enhanced with mobile health (mHeatth) compared with one-on-one mHeatth coaching (basic education supported by activity tracking (BEAT]) for young adults with serious mental illness who were overweight or obese. Methods: Participants were young adults ages 18-35 years with serious mental illness and a body mass index >= 25 kg/m(2), who were randomly assigned to PeerFIT or BEAT. Research staff collected data at baseline and at 6 and 12 months. Main outcomes were clinically significant changes from baseline in weight (>= 5% weight toss), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF; increase of >50 m on the 6-minute walk test), and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk reduction (clinically significant weight loss or CRF improvement). Results: Participants were 150 young adults with a mean +/- SD body mass index of 37.1 +/- 7.4. intent-to-treat analyses revealed no significant between-group difference for weight-loss, CRF, or CVD outcomes at 6 and 12 months. Participants in both conditions achieved clinically significant CVD risk reduction, weight toss, and CRF from baseline to 6 and 12 months, and alt these improvements were statistically significant (p<0.01). Conclusion: The PeerFIT group lifestyle intervention was not superior to one-on-one mHeatth coaching in achieving clinically significant changes in weight, CRF, and CVD risk reduction. Although both interventions improved outcomes, low-intensity mHeatth coaching may be a more scalable approach for addressing modifiable cardiometabolic risk factors among young adults with serious mental illness.