Feasibility, Safety and Acceptability of a Mobile Health Delivered Exercise Training Program in Patients With Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis

April 2, 2026 updated by: Justin Tondt, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
This study will be a pilot study to evaluate the feasibility, safety and acceptability of Exercise and Liver FITness (EL-FIT), a mHealth exercise training program previously validated in patients with cirrhosis in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

17

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States, 17033
        • Penn State Hershey Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adults age >18 years

  • Evidence of NASH indicated by at least one of the following

    • Liver biopsy with evidence of steatohepatitis (NAS >=4) within 6 months of the screening interval or;
    • Historical Imaging study (e.g., ultrasound, CT, MRI) with hepatic steatosis and one of the following non-invasive tests within 6 months of the screening interval: i. FIB-4 >= 1.3 or; ii. NFS >= -1.44 or; iii. ELF >= 7.7 or; iv. VCTE kPa >=8 or; v. ARFI >=1.3 or; vi. FAST >= 0.35 or; vii. MRE kPa >=2.55 or; viii. MAST > 0.165 or;
  • Possession of a smartphone

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Active cardiac symptoms precluding participation in vigorous exercise
  • Active or recent participation in exercise training program within the last 90 days
  • Active or recent weight-loss supplement use within the last 90 days (does not include GLP-1 receptor agonist use)
  • Active illicit substance use
  • Cancer that is active
  • Cirrhosis
  • Exercise identified to be unsafe by study PI or EL-FIT mHealth program
  • Inability to provide informed consent
  • Inability to walk > 2 blocks
  • Institutionalized/prisoner
  • Other chronic liver disease (e.g., viral hepatitis)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Application Useage Arm
Along with wearing their Fitbit daily, subjects will be asked to use El-Fit app to participant in daily exercise as much or a little as they want over the course of the study.
Behavioral: Exercise Intervention with use of El-Fit App
Along with wearing their Fitbit daily, subjects will be asked to use El-Fit app to participant in daily exercise as much or a little as they want over the course of the study.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of subjects that complete at least 50% of the exercise sessions
Time Frame: 8 weeks
The primary study endpoint is feasibility of the use of the application, which is defined as >50% of subjects adhering to the exercise prescribed, defined as completing >50% of the sessions.
8 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Justin G Tondt, MD, Penn State Health

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

February 1, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2026

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 15, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 6, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

January 8, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 8, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 2, 2026

Last Verified

April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 22771

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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