2.3. Intervention
obesity
OBESITY, HYPERTENSION
Living Better is a computerised intervention that is self-administered through the internet. The treatment protocol consists of 9 modules and incorporates psychological strategies that encourage a healthy lifestyle by progressively establishing healthy eating habits and increasing the level of PA, as recommended by international guidelines. A period of 12 weeks was allowed for the completion of the entire programme, during which time the modules were activated weekly or fortnightly. Some of the techniques used were self-monitoring, self-instruction, behavioural recording, stimulus control, self-reinforcement, problem-solving techniques, and homework. In addition, the accompanying web page (designed and hosted by a web-based platform called Wix) offered useful tools such as the ability to download documents online and view multiple videos and had a responsive design that adjusted the site for viewing with mobile devices. More details about the intervention can be found in Baños et al. [The programme content followed by both groups was identical, with the exception that the physician who appeared in the audiovisual material differed between them; the CG patients saw a doctor that they did not know while those assigned to the EG saw their own obesity–hypertension phenotype specialist. Specifically, Living Better contains 32 videos (reaching a total of 52 min) of the presenting doctors’ audiovisual presence. Both the doctors involved in delivering the audiovisual content in this study were specialists in the obesity–hypertension phenotype and vascular risk, regularly engaged in PA, and had a healthy appearance.