About

Douglas E Conroy is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. His role involves teaching and clinical responsibilities within the field of physical therapy, contributing to the education of students in the program. The profile indicates his affiliation with the department and his involvement in clinical and academic activities related to human movement sciences.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Gerontology
• Psychiatry
• Physical therapy
• Psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Internal medicine
• Psychotherapist
• Meteorology
• Environmental science
• Geography
• Environmental health

Selected publications

• Mobile health lifestyle intervention program leads to clinically significant loss of body weight in patients with NASH

  Hepatology Communications · 2023 · 33 citations

  • Medicine
  • Gerontology
  • Psychology

  BACKGROUND AIMS: Lifestyle intervention remains the foundation of clinical care for patients with NASH; however, most patients are unsuccessful in enacting sustained behavioral change. There remains a clear unmet need to develop lifestyle intervention programs to support weight loss. Mobile health (mHealth) programs offer promise to address this need, yet their efficacy remains unexplored. APPROACH RESULTS: We conducted a 16-week randomized controlled clinical trial involving adults with NASH. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1 ratio) to receive Noom Weight (NW), a mHealth lifestyle intervention program, or standard clinical care. The primary end point was a change in body weight. Secondary end points included feasibility (weekly app engagement), acceptability (>50% approached enrolled), and safety. Of 51 patients approached, 40 (78%) were randomly assigned (20 NW and 20 standard clinical care). NW significantly decreased body weight when compared to standard clinical care (-5.5 kg vs. -0.3 kg, p = 0.008; -5.4% vs. -0.4%, p = 0.004). More NW subjects achieved a clinically significant weight loss of ≥5% body weight (45% vs. 15%, p = 0.038). No adverse events occurred, and the majority (70%) of subjects in the NW arm met the feasibility criteria. CONCLUSIONS: This clinical trial demonstrated that NW is not only feasible, acceptable, and safe but also highly efficacious because this mHealth lifestyle intervention program led to significantly greater body weight loss than standard clinical care. Future large-scale studies are required to validate these findings with more representative samples and to determine if mHealth lifestyle intervention programs can lead to sustained, long-term weight loss in patients with NASH.

  PublisherDOI

• Seasons, weather, and device-measured movement behaviors: a scoping review from 2006 to 2020

  International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · 2021 · 197 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Environmental science
  • Medicine
  • Geography

  BACKGROUND: This scoping review summarized research on (a) seasonal differences in physical activity and sedentary behavior, and (b) specific weather indices associated with those behaviors. METHODS: PubMed, CINAHL, and SPORTDiscus were searched to identify relevant studies. After identifying and screening 1459 articles, data were extracted from 110 articles with 118,189 participants from 30 countries (almost exclusively high-income countries) on five continents. RESULTS: Both physical activity volume and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were greater in summer than winter. Sedentary behavior was greater in winter than either spring or summer, and insufficient evidence existed to draw conclusions about seasonal differences in light physical activity. Physical activity volume and MVPA duration were positively associated with both the photoperiod and temperature, and negatively associated with precipitation. Sedentary behavior was negatively associated with photoperiod and positively associated with precipitation. Insufficient evidence existed to draw conclusions about light physical activity and specific weather indices. Many weather indices have been neglected in this literature (e.g., air quality, barometric pressure, cloud coverage, humidity, snow, visibility, windchill). CONCLUSIONS: The natural environment can influence health by facilitating or inhibiting physical activity. Behavioral interventions should be sensitive to potential weather impacts. Extreme weather conditions brought about by climate change may compromise health-enhancing physical activity in the short term and, over longer periods of time, stimulate human migration in search of more suitable environmental niches.

  DOI

• Physical activity and sleep: An updated umbrella review of the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee report

  Sleep Medicine Reviews · 2021 · 132 citations

  • Medicine
  • Physical therapy
  • Gerontology
  DOI

• A systematic review of physical activity and quality of life and well-being

  Translational Behavioral Medicine · 2020 · 545 citations

  • Gerontology
  • Medicine
  • Psychiatry

  Maintaining or improving quality of life (QoL) and well-being is a universal goal across the lifespan. Being physically active has been suggested as one way to enhance QoL and well-being. In this systematic review, conducted in part for the 2018 U.S. Health and Human Services Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Scientific Advisory Committee Report, we examined the relationship between physical activity (PA) and QoL and well-being experienced by the general population across the lifespan and by persons with psychiatric and neurologic conditions. Systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and pooled analyses from 2006 to 2018 were used for the evidence base. Strong evidence (predominantly from randomized controlled trials [RCTs]) demonstrated that, for adults aged 18-65 years and older adults (primarily 65 years and older), PA improves QoL and well-being when compared with minimal or no-treatment controls. Moderate evidence indicated that PA improves QoL and well-being in individuals with schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease, and limited evidence indicated that PA improves QoL and well-being for youth and for adults with major clinical depression or bipolar disorder. Insufficient evidence existed for individuals with dementia because of a small number of studies with mixed results. Future high-quality research designs should include RCTs involving longer interventions testing different modes and intensities of PA in diverse populations of healthy people and individuals with cognitive (e.g., dementia) and mental health conditions (e.g., schizophrenia) to precisely characterize the effects of different forms of PA on aspects of QoL and well-being.

  DOI

Recent grants

• Phase 1 clinical trial to develop a personalized adaptive text message intervention using control systems engineering tools to increase physical activity in early adulthood

  NIH · $2.4M · 2018–2023

• NIH Grant R03HD042535

  NIH · $144k · 2006

• NIH Grant R03MH065230

  NIH · $68k · 2003

• Efficacy of sipIT Intervention for Increasing Urine Output in Patients with Urolithiasis

  NIH · $3.4M · 2024–2026

Frequent coauthors

• Nilàm Ram

  Stanford University

  55 shared

• Aaron L. Pincus

  Pennsylvania State University

  42 shared

• Jaclyn P. Maher

  University of North Carolina at Greensboro

  34 shared

• Constantino Lagoa

  33 shared

• Kathryn H. Schmitz

  American Society of Clinical Oncology

  28 shared

• Amanda L. Rebar

  Motiva (Finland)

  26 shared

• Joshua M. Smyth

  24 shared

• Chih‐Hsiang Yang

  University of South Carolina

  23 shared

Labs

• NU-CHAPTER LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Physical Therapy

  University of Illinois at Chicago

  1993

• M.S., Physical Therapy

  University of Illinois at Chicago

  1989

• B.S., Physical Therapy

  University of Illinois at Chicago

  1986

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