Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Feb 26, 2019
Open Peer Review Period: Mar 1, 2019 - Apr 10, 2019
Date Accepted: Apr 20, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
A community-based short message service intervention to improve mothers’ feeding practices for obesity prevention
ABSTRACT
Background:
The prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing in China and the effect of mobile phone short message service (SMS) to prevent early childhood obesity need to be evaluated.
Objective:
To assess the effect of a short message service (SMS) intervention on children’s obesity risk.
Methods:
A quasi-experimental design SMS intervention was carried out in four Community Health Centers (CHCs) in Shanghai, China. Two CHCs were assigned to the intervention group and two to the control group. Mothers in the intervention group received weekly SMS messages on breastfeeding and infant feeding from the third trimester to 12 months postpartum. The primary outcomes were children’s BMI, BMI z-score and weight for length z-score at 12 and 24 months. Factors associated with higher BMI and weight for length at 24 months were also assessed.
Results:
582 expectant mothers were recruited at the beginning of the third gestational trimester. 477 (82.0%) and 467 (80.2%) mothers and their children were followed up to 12 and 24 months postpartum, respectively. There were no significant differences in children’s BMI, BMI z-score or weight for length z-score at 12 and 24 months between the intervention and control groups. Factors associated with higher BMI, BMI z-score and weight for length z-score at 24 months included higher birthweight, introduction of solid foods before 4 months and taking a bottle to bed at 12 months.
Conclusions:
The SMS intervention did not show a significant effect on children’s BMI, BMI z-score or weight for length z-score at 12 and 24 months. Further studies are needed to evaluate the effect of SMS interventions on reducing obesity risk.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
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