NCT02985307

Impact of Mobile Phone Texting Service to Support Weight Loss

Efficacy of Mobile Telehealth Short Message Service (SMS) as a Facilitator for Weight Management: A Randomised Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 120 (actual)
• Sponsor: NHS Lothian · Other Government
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This study evaluates the efficacy of a mobile telehealth short message service as a facilitator for weight management. Half of the participants will receive a standard care weight management group intervention, while the other half will receive daily text messages via their mobile phone to help facilitate weight loss. It is hypothesized that the intervention group receiving text messages will be as successful as the control group at achieving weight loss over a 3-month period.

Detailed description

Obesity, a chronic progressive disease, has become a major public health concern due to its increasing prevalence and association with many adverse health conditions including type 2 diabetes, many cancers and heart disease. The number of individuals requiring weight management intervention is increasing necessitating the need to explore other initiatives. Developments in health technology are growing in popularity and there is increasing evidence that this type of intervention for obesity can significantly improve clinical outcomes. Mobile phones are a popular means of communication that provide a convenient, inexpensive means to deliver a health technology intervention.Short message service (SMS) by mobile phone has the potential to serve as an intervention medium to promote weight loss that is accessible and easy to use.

Conditions

• Obesity

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Short Message Text Service	A service designed by professionals inside the National Health Service (NHS) to provide support and advice for participants to manage weight loss. It combines the expertise of the healthcare team and the convenience of the participant's own mobile phone to give prompts and advice to act on. It makes use of the familiar and convenient mobile phone text service 'SMS' to communicate directly with participants.
BEHAVIORAL	Standard Weight Management Group	A standard Lothian NHS group programme facilitated by a Dietitian

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-04-28
• Primary completion: 2018-11-30
• Completion: 2018-11-30
• First posted: 2016-12-07
• Last updated: 2025-10-03

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: United Kingdom