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1. Introduction
The rate of childhood obesity in Korea is constantly increasing, with 26.4% of boys categorized as either overweight or obese as of 2013, exceeding the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED) average of 24.3% [1,2]. Showing the disparity between males and females in terms of childhood obesity [2], 14.1% of girls are categorized as being in the same condition. According to the measure of BMI for children and teens by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), childhood obesity is defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex, whereas overweight is defined as a BMI at or above the 85th percentile and below the 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex [3]. Childhood obesity can seriously impact public health matters, not only causing enormous medical expenses, but also resulting in various illnesses over the lifetime [4,5]. For these reasons, numerous studies have focused on childhood obesity prevention and management intervention [6,7,8,9,10]. Also, research on childhood obesity has highlighted the necessity of combined dietary-behavioral-physical activity intervention along with family-based education to foster a supportive home environment, which is integrated with a child’s school system [11,12,13,14,15,16]. School-based approaches have been shown to be the most effective in solving the health problems of school-age children, including obesity [13,17,18,19]. Recent studies have introduced new technologies to help prevent or manage obesity, using smartphone applications that tackle issues of dietary and physical activity (PA), together with wearable devices that track the intensity of the user’s PA as well as daily and weekly calorie consumption [20,21,22,23,24,25,26]. Insofar as behavior changes are essential for the prevention and treatment of obesity [27], mobile health (mHealth)-a general term that refers to the use of mobile phones and other wireless technology in medical care-can be a useful tool in implementing and monitoring behavior changes [28]. Types of intervention that involve smartphone-assisted programs have been shown to be effective in obese adolescents [29]. Evidence is lacking, however, as to whether these types of intervention programs are well suited for school-age children. Regardless, mobile applications targeting children to promote healthier behaviors have potential, because many youth begin interacting with computers and cell phones at very early ages [30]. Thus, smartphones,...