Objective:
To evaluate effects of mobile health intervention on vegetables and fruits intakes, screen time, body mass index, BMI Z score and waist circumference in children and adolescents.
Methods:
The literature search was performed to find articles published up to December 2018 in the databases: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang. The articles focusing on the keywords of "prevention" "children" "adolescents" "obesity" "weight loss" "m-Health" "mobile phone" "mobile application" "mobile techonology" "cell phone" "smartphone" "mobile apps" for the delivery of children and adolescents obesity interventions were included. Stata 13.0 software was used for Meta-analysis.
Results:
A total of 15 studies were included, and mobile health had an effect on the vegetables and fruits intakes and screen time for children and adolescents. Mobile health was more effective in the intervention participants compared to controls, the standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95%CI were 0.54 (95%CI=0.27-0.81) and -0.32(95%CI=-0.47--0.18),respectively. However, no statistical differences in the BMI, BMI Z score and waist circumference were found between intervention and control groups.
Conclusion
The effect of mobile health intervention on obesity in children and adolescents needs more long-term follow-up and larger sample size studies to clarify.