Short-term outcomes of the digital combined lifestyle intervention CooL-MiGuide: a descriptive case series study

Background The objective of this study is to investigate the changes over time in anthropometrics, behaviours and health perceptions over eight months of participation in the Combined Lifestyle Intervention (CLI) CooL-MiGuide. This intervention is a digital version of the Coaching on Lifestyle (CooL) intervention with the add-on of a digital platform and an app. Longitudinal data were collected between January 2022 and December 2023 from adults, mainly in the South-Western area of the Netherlands. All participants met the inclusion criteria for the CLI, which include being obese (Body Mass Index (BMI) > 30) or being overweight (25 < BMI < 30) with comorbidity and/or increased waist circumference; and being sufficiently motivated. We collected comprehensive data at baseline (T0) and after eight months of participation (T1) on anthropometrics, control and support, physical activity, diet attentiveness, alcohol consumption, smoking, perceived fitness, sleep and stress. Changes over time were analyzed using paired t-tests comparing T1 to baseline and effect sizes were calculated using Cohen's d. Results The results indicate positive changes after eight months in anthropometrics, sedentary time, diet attentiveness, sleep, stress, fitness, and perceived health of in total 129 participants. The largest effect sizes were observed for weight (Cohen's d = 0.62, average weight loss of 3.82 kg), perceived health (Cohen's d = 0.58) and perceived fitness of the participants when waking up and during daytime (Cohen's d = 0.41 and 0.52 respectively). Conclusions CooL-MiGuide participants exhibited improvements in perceived health and weight. The digital version of CooL can be a valuable alternative for people who prefer to participate from a location of their choice.