Article archive / December 1, 2011
Originally published: . Volume 3, No. 4. Source pages: 8.
Pennington’s Dr. Corby Martin, health and clinical psychologist, puts his thinking cap on about how to use modern technology in novel ways in the battle with weight and obesity.
Dr. Martin is Associate Professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center and Director of the Ingestive Behavior Laboratory. Dr. Martin and his team conduct randomized controlled trials on weight management. They also conduct laboratory-based studies on the effects of different interventions on food intake and energy expenditure/metabolism.
Dr. Martin’s group specializes in the development and delivery of e-Health interventions, which deliver weight management services to patients while they live at home.
“We recently validated a novel method to measure food intake while people live at home and go about their daily lives,” he told the Times. ‘When using this method, called the Remote Food Photography Method, people capture images of their foods with a Smartphone and these images are sent to our server where we accurately estimate food intake.
People can receive valuable information about their food intake habits in the comfort of their own home since we send this feedback directly to their smartphone.”
The group is investigating another novel use of technology. “…we recently developed and successfully tested an e-Health intervention that delivers weight management treatment to patients while they live at home,” Dr. Martin noted. “Patients' body weight, energy intake, and exercise data are automatically collected in the home environment in real- time using e-Health communication technology, and patients receive treatment recommendations based on these data. These recommendations are delivered to the patient via the multimedia capabilities of smartphones.”
Dr. Martin and his colleagues from across several groups at Pennington, recently published “Trends Over 5 Decades in U.S. Occupation- Related Physical Activity and Their Associations with Obesity.”
The study examined the trends in work-related activity and estimated that Americans are burning about 100 calories less per day than they were decades ago.
The Pennington “Trends” study helps to explain that the change in activity levels over decades may relate to America’s increase in body weight.
Health psychology is an expanding area in psychology. Dr. Martin explained to the Times, “Health psychology continues to become more involved in the medical arena. Health psychologists play important roles in bariatric surgery centers, cancer centers, and other settings where chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and hypertension, are treated.”
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