Everist Health (United States)

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has induced unhealthy lifestyles, particularly an increase in overweight and obesity, which have been shown to be associated with an increased risk of unfavorable COVID-19 outcomes. Web-based health programs could be a helpful measure, especially in times of severe restrictions. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of regular attendance in a 12-week web-based weight loss program on COVIDAge, a new construct for risk assessment of COVID-19, and lifestyle-related cardiometabolic risk factors. N = 92 subjects with overweight and obesity (50.0 ± 10.8 years, 76.1% females, 30.5 ± 2.1 kg/m2) of this randomized controlled trial, which were assigned to an interactive (ONLINE: intervention group) or non-interactive (CON: control group) web-based weight loss program, were included in the data analysis. COVIDAge and cardiometabolic risk factors, including anthropometric outcomes, blood pressure, flow-mediated dilatation, and blood parameters, were assessed before and after the 12-week intervention phase. There was a significant group difference in the change of COVIDAge (ONLINE: −4.2%, CON: −1.3%, p = 0.037). The ONLINE group also showed significantly greater reductions in anthropometric outcomes and systolic blood pressure than the CON group (p < 0.05). To the authors' knowledge, this was the first study investigating the effects of regular attendance in a web-based health program on lifestyle-related risk factors for COVID-19. The results demonstrated that adults with overweight and obesity can improve their COVIDAge and specific cardiometabolic risk factors by using this interactive web-based weight loss program regularly. However, this needs to be confirmed by future studies. This study is registered at the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00020249, https://www.drks.de).

Genetic Programming Theory and Practice VI was developed from the sixth workshop at the University of Michigans Center for the Study of Complex Systems to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information related to the rapidly advancing field of Genetic Programming (GP). Contributions from the foremost international researchers and practitioners in the GP arena examine the similarities and differences between theoretical and empirical results on real-world problems. The text explores the synergy between theory and practice, producing a comprehensive view of the state of the art in GP application. These contributions address several significant interdependent themes which emerged from this years workshop, including: (1) Making efficient and effective use of test data. (2) Sustaining the long-term evolvability of our GP systems. (3) Exploiting discovered subsolutions for reuse. (4) Increasing the role of a Domain Expert.