The Value of Tracking Data on the Behavior of Patients Who Have Undergone Bariatric Surgery: Explorative Study

To maintain the benefits of a bariatric procedure, patients have to change their lifestyle permanently. This happens within a context of coresponsibilities of health care professionals and their social support system. However, most interventions are focused on the patient as an individual. In this explorative pilot study, behavioral, contextual, and experiential data were gathered to obtain insight on coresponsibility.

The aim of this study is to explore the use of trackers by patients who have undergone bariatric surgery in a data-enabled design approach.

Behavioral and contextual data on the households of patients who have undergone bariatric surgery were explored using a smartphone with an interactive user interface (UI), weight scale, activity bracelet, smart socket, accelerometer motion sensor, and event button to find examples of opportunities for future interventions.

A total of 6 households were monitored. Approximately 483,000 data points were collected, and the participants engaged in 1483 conversations with the system. Examples were found using different combinations of data types, which provided the obesity team a better understanding of patient behaviors and their support system, such as a referral to a family coach instead of a dietician. Another finding regarding the partners was, for example, that the conversational UI system facilitated discussion about the support structure by asking for awareness.

An intelligent system using a combination of quantitative data gathered by data tracking products in the home environment and qualitative data gathered by app-enhanced short conversations, as well as face-to-face interviews, is useful for an improved understanding of coresponsibilities in the households of patients who have undergone bariatric surgery. The examples found in this explorative study so far encourage research in this field.