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Table 4 Intervention and Control Characteristics, Outcomes, Follow-up Time Points and Key Findings for a Single Study Investigating the Effects of Mobile Phone-based Communications

From: A systematic review to assess the effectiveness of technology-based interventions to address obesity in children

Authors & year

Interventions

Intervention intensity & duration

Outcomes

Follow-up time points

Key findings

Weight-related outcomes

Mean difference

P-value*

Nguyen et al., 2013

1) Behavioural lifestyle programme plus:

telephone/ SMS/email

2) Programme only

2 years

During Phase 2 (22 months) adolescents received 14 telephone coaching sessions and 32 SMS +/ emails

1) Weight

2) BMI

3) BMI z-score

4) WC

5) WHtR

6) SBP & DBP

7) Metabolic profile

8) Self-reported psychosocial and lifestyle changes

2 months (end of Phase 1)

12 months

24 months (end of Phase 2)

- In both arms the programme produced statistically significant reductions in BMI z-score, WHtR and several metabolic and psychosocial improvements

- Compared to the programme alone, the additional communication had no statistically significant impact on outcomes

Body weight (kg)

−2.1 (−7.14, 2.94)

0.42

BMI (kg/m2)

−1.0 (−2.45, 0.45)

0.18

BMI z-score

−1.0 (−0.24, 0.04)

0.18

WC (cm)

−0.5 (−4.36, 3.36)

0.18

WHtR

0.00 (−0.02, 0.02)

1

  1. Abbreviations - SMS short message service, BMI body mass index, WC waist circumference, WHtR waist to height ratio, SBP systolic blood pressure, DBP diastolic blood pressure
  2. *P-values in bold are statistically significant at 5% significance level