JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Digital interventions for obesity have been shown to be effective in reducing and preventing obesity. The emergence of smart phones and popular applications such as WeChat represent potential modalities that might enhance the reach and sustainability of obesity interventions and reduce costs of implementation. By the end of first quarter in 2024, there were approximately 1.36 billion monthly active users of WeChat accounting for 96.5% of the whole Chinese population The potential of this widely used app for obesity interventions has been noted in multiple Chinese intervention trials, most of which have been published in Chinese language journals.

Objective:

We aim to summarize the existing evidence on obesity interventions delivered through WeChat to provide implications for intervention development in the future, and to reach an international audience.

Methods:

A scoping review of PubMed and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) was conducted to identify research on WeChat-assisted obesity intervention.

Results:

We conducted a scoping literature review of PubMed and CNKI, which yielded 665 initial studies. Forty-three studies met eligibility criteria and underwent data extraction to provide intervention details. Most studies (86.0%) demonstrated the efficacy of obesity interventions via WeChat in short- and long-term weight loss using objective outcome measures such as body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio and body fat percentage. However, the studies lack sufficient formative research to inform intervention development. Other common study design flaws included: lack of randomization and/or blinding (97.7%), and no reporting of intervention compliance metrics (92.0%). Most interventions were limited to the “WeChat Groups”, and “Official Accounts” (i.e., public accounts that provide health education materials to followers, record daily diet and physical activity, and other functions) features for delivery.

Conclusions:

Overall, the WeChat platform could be a promising instrument in obesity interventions, but current applications do not take full advantages of the versatile features of this app (e.g., online payment, live streaming). Future research testing the effectiveness of using WeChat for obesity interventions should include a formative phase and employ a more rigorous study design, such as a randomized controlled trial, to understand the best way to format and deliver obesity interventions using this modality.