Authors
Chrysa Episkopou, Dimitrios Aletras, Afroditi Kita, Aleksandra Luszczynska, Maria Kafyra, Eva Karaglani, Yannis Manios, Maira Bes-Rastrollo, Anna Ek, Ioannis Ioakeimidis, Ioanna Panagiota Kalafati, Ana Rito, Alexis Kyriacou, Anestis Dougkas, Julie Anne Nazare, Louise Seconda, Gillian Santorelli, Vassilios Fanos, Karri Silventoinen, Terho Lehtimäki, George V Dedoussis, Anastasios Delopoulos, of the BETTER4U consortium, Project Coordinator George Dedoussis
Published in
Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity. Pages e70242. Oct 15, 2026. Epub Oct 15, 2026.
Abstract
Understanding obesity involves evaluating numerous contributing factors. Collecting the necessary data for this can impose a significant burden on both research participants during clinical studies and real-life deployments of digital tools aiding obesity management. The BETTER4U project (European Union's Horizon Europe, Grant Agreement ID 101080117) introduces 36 behavioral and 9 living environment indicators designed to unobtrusively and efficiently capture daily life through passive monitoring using market-available smartphones and smartwatches while accounting for environmental confounders. This concise set, intended for dietitians, physical activity experts, and healthcare professionals as a standard for assessing obesity-related behavior, summarizes the behavioral and environmental profile of a person with obesity/overweight. We present the selected indicators, their selection and implementation methodology and the high-level plan for their verification, describing their conceptual foundations and technical realization. These indicators can be deployed in a modular framework: by transforming raw sensor data into structured, interpretable measures they provide a scalable foundation for long-term monitoring of obesogenic behaviors, individual assessment, and evaluation of interventions targeting physical activity, diet, stress, and sleep. The indicators are intended for an expert-facing dashboard within the BETTER4U Intervention Platform, a participant-side interface within the BETTER4U application, and as input to the BETTER4U AI-based causal model, supporting relationship modeling between behavior, environment, and obesity outcomes to inform personalized interventions. This work lays the basis for data-driven validation of these indicators following the "BETTER4ALL Pilot Study" (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT07120802), ahead of their use in the BETTER4U RCT among individuals with obesity/overweight.
PMID:
42880872
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 16 Oct 2026.
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