Clinical research studyMobile Health Messages Help Sustain Recent Weight Loss
Section snippets
Study Design
We conducted an exploratory randomized controlled trial using mixed methods, with data collected at baseline, and 1 month and 3 months post baseline. Permuted block randomization with a block size of 3 was used by the research coordinator to assign 120 participants to 1 of the 3 following message intervention groups: promotion-framed (n = 41), prevention-framed (n = 40), or general health message control group (n = 39; see Figure). Effect sizes specific to text message-based interventions and
Baseline Characteristics
We recruited 120 participants from May 2011 to February 2012 (Figure). Most participants were white (94%), college educated (81%), and financially stable (80%). A majority was female (59%), currently working (58%), and almost half were married (48%). The mean weight was 247.5 (SD = 61.8) pounds and mean body mass index was 38.1 (SD 7.8). Significant group differences in baseline characteristics were not observed (P >.05; Table 1). The sample was comparable with the DFC population with regard to
Discussion
Findings for sustained weight loss indicated that the overall rate of sustained weight loss was 98% after 1 month and 95% after 3 months. A higher proportion of participants sustained their weight loss in the 2 active intervention groups when compared with the control condition. Clinically meaningful effects on sustained weight loss were observed for the promotion and prevention arms relative to controls after month 1. Interestingly, the effect of the prevention intervention further increased
Conclusion
Communication technologies such as mobile phones may serve as an effective medium to deliver affordable health promotion and disease prevention care to an array of people due to their ubiquity and penetration into people's everyday lives. However, emerging and promising technologies must be matched with content that successfully resonates and motivates people to change and sustain behaviors. Our findings demonstrate that it is not only feasible and acceptable to use text messaging as a health
Acknowledgments
We thank William Tatum, Jeffrey Hess, and Lucie Knapp for their support.
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Funding: This research was supported by a Duke University Health System Information Technology Fellowship, a National Research Service Award (1F31 NR012599) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Nursing Research, and a Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Office of Academic Affiliations nursing postdoctoral research award (TPP-21-021), to the first author. HBB was supported by a Research Career Scientist award from the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Health Services Research and Development RCS-08-027. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of Duke University, the NIH, or the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
Conflict of interest: None.
Authorship: All work herein is original. All authors meet the criteria for authorship, including acceptance of responsibility for the scientific content of the manuscript.