Introduction: With the rising number of patients with diabetes, an increased trend of people having pre-diabetic state also increases. Interventions that promote weight reduction and improved physical activity decrease the risk of diabetes and even normalize blood sugar levels among pre-diabetic individuals. Promising evidence showed that the use of digital health technologies, focusing on weight loss, has significant effects on preventing diabetes. Objective: To synthesize available evidence on the effectiveness of digital health technology in achieving weight loss among pre-diabetic adults. Methods: A meta-analysis of randomized and non-randomized controlled trials among pre-diabetic adults was conducted.. A database search using The Cochrane Library, PubMed®, Google Scholar, and ProQuest was done by the investigators. Separate forest plots were developed for each outcome. Pooled estimates of mean differences for each outcome were computed. Results: Eleven trials were included. The pooled estimate demonstrated significantly higher weight loss (MD=1.77, 95%CI=0.82 to 2.73, p-value=0.0003), higher BMI reduction (MD=0.81, 95%CI=0.64 to 0.97, p-value<0.00001) and higher percent weight loss (MD=2.60, 95%CI=2.12 to 3.07, p-value<0.00001) among patients who received digital health technology interventions than controls. However, these results had high heterogeneity. Subgroup analysis by type of intervention significantly decreased the heterogeneity, with mixed interventions (combination of web pages, mobile applications, wearable technologies etc.) showing significant improvement in BMI and percent weight loss Conclusions/Recommendations The current meta-analysis demonstrated that use of digital health technology in achieving weight loss among pre-diabetic adults is more effective than usual care alone, particularly when delivered through mixed digital health technologies. Providing health education, reminders, counseling, and motivation through the web, emails, and mobile phones are recommended to achieve weight loss and BMI reduction among pre-diabetics. Further studies are recommended to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of these interventions and whether these interventions offer long-term benefits.
Telemedicine ; Weight Loss