Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Sep 11, 2019
Date Accepted: Jan 23, 2020
Studies investigating mHealth for pediatric weight management: a systematic scoping review
ABSTRACT
Background:
The prevalence and consequences of obesity among children/adolescents remains a leading global public health concern, and evidence-based, multi-disciplinary lifestyle interventions are the cornerstone of treatment. Mobile electronic devices are widely used across socioeconomic categories, and may provide a means of extending the reach and efficiency of healthcare interventions.
Objective:
We aimed to synthesize the evidence regarding mobile health for treatment of childhood overweight and obesity, in order to map the breadth and nature of the literature in this field and describe the characteristics of published studies.
Methods:
We conducted a systematic scoping review in line with PRISMA-ScR guidance, by searching nine academic databases in addition to grey literature for studies describing acceptability, usability, feasibility, effectiveness, adherence, or cost-effectiveness of interventions assessing mHealth for childhood obesity treatment. We also hand searched reference lists of relevant articles. Studies aimed at prevention of overweight/obesity were excluded, as were studies whereby mHealth was not the primary mode of treatment delivery for at least one study arm, or was not independently assessed. A random portion of all abstracts and full texts were double screened by a second reviewer to ensure consistency. Data were charted according to study characteristics including design, participants, intervention content, behavior change theory underpinning the study, mode of delivery and outcome(s) measured.
Results:
We identified 42 eligible studies assessing acceptability (n=7), usability (n=2), feasibility/pilot studies (n=15), treatment effect (n=17) and fidelity (n=1). Change in BMI z-scores/percentiles was most commonly measured, among a variety of dietary, physical activity, psychological and usability/acceptability measures. SMS, mobile applications and wearable devices make up the majority of mobile interventions and 69% of studies specified a behavior change theory used.
Conclusions:
Pediatric weight management using mHealth is an emerging field, with most work to date aimed at developing and piloting such interventions. Few large trials are published, and these are heterogeneous in nature and rarely reported according to eCONSORT guidelines. There is an evidence gap for cost-effectiveness analyses of such studies.
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