Social Media–Promoted Weight Loss Among an Occupational Population: Cohort Study Using a WeChat Mobile Phone App-Based Campaign

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Abstract

Background

Being overweight and obese are major risk factors for noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases. The prevalence of overweight and obesity is high throughout the world and these issues are very serious in the Shunyi District in China. As mobile technologies have rapidly developed, mobile apps such as WeChat are well accepted and have the potential to improve health behaviors.

Objective

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile app (WeChat) as an intervention on weight loss behavior.

Methods

This study was conducted among an occupational population from August 2015 to February 2016 in the Shunyi District of Beijing. Before the intervention, the Shunyi District Government released an official document for weight loss to all 134 government agencies and enterprises in Shunyi District. Participants willing to use our official WeChat account were enrolled in a WeChat group and received 6 months of interventions for weight loss; those who were not willing to use the account were in a control group given routine publicity on weight loss.

Results

In total, 15,310 occupational participants including 3467 participants (22.65%) in the control group and 11,843 participants (77.35%) in the WeChat group were enrolled. Participants in the WeChat group lost more weight (mean 2.09, SD 3.43 kg) than people in the control group (mean 1.78, SD 2.96 kg), and the difference in mean weight loss between the two groups for males was significant based on the stratification of age and educational level. To control for confounding factors and to explore the effects of WeChat on weight loss, the propensity score method with a multinominal logistic regression was utilized. For males, this showed that the WeChat group (with both active and inactive subgroups) had a higher probability of maintaining weight, weight loss from 1 to 2 kg, or weight loss more than 2 kg than the control group. However, the control group had higher probability of weight loss from 0 to 1 kg. Being active in WeChat was likely to be associated with weight loss. The more active participants were in the weight loss program via WeChat, the more weight they lost.

Conclusions

The weight loss intervention campaign based on an official WeChat account focused on an occupation-based population in Shunyi District was effective for males. The more active male participants were in using WeChat, the more weight they lost. There might be no effect or there may even be a negative effect on weight loss for females. Future research should focus on how to improve adherence to the WeChat weight loss interventions, to improve and refine the WeChat content such as developing a variety of materials to attract interest, and to protect personal privacy, especially for females.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Xinying Sun:

Department of Social Medicine and Health Education, School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science CenterNo.38, Xueyuan Road Haidian District Beijing 100191, P.R.ChinaBeijing, 100191China86 13691212050xysun@bjmu.edu.cn

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6638-1473

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Med Internet Res

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J. Med. Internet Res

Journal ID (publisher-id): JMIR

Title: Journal of Medical Internet Research

Publisher: JMIR Publications (Toronto, Canada )

ISSN (Print): 1439-4456

ISSN (Electronic): 1438-8871

Publication date Collection: October 2017

Publication date (Electronic): 23 October 2017

Volume: 19

Issue: 10

Electronic Location Identifier: e357

Affiliations

[1] ¹ Department of Health Education, Shunyi Center for Disease Prevention and Control Beijing China

[2] ² Department of Social Medicine and Health Education, School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Center Beijing China

Author notes

Corresponding Author: Xinying Sun xysun@ 123456bjmu.edu.cn

Author information

Chao He http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0959-9366

Shiyan Wu http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2062-5388

Yingying Zhao http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6601-0127

Zheng Li http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5688-0367

Yanyan Zhang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3148-9852

Jia Le http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8186-1838

Lei Wang http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6556-258X

Siyang Wan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6461-9166

Changqing Li http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9220-8412

Yindong Li http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2968-5758

Xinying Sun http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6638-1473

Article

Publisher ID: v19i10e357

DOI: 10.2196/jmir.7861

PMC ID: 5673881

PubMed ID: 29061555

SO-VID: 5b315991-2dfe-4cca-aca8-8805a0c2111b

Copyright © ©Chao He, Shiyan Wu, Yingying Zhao, Zheng Li, Yanyan Zhang, Jia Le, Lei Wang, Siyang Wan, Changqing Li, Yindong Li, Xinying Sun. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 23.10.2017.

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.

History

Date received : 15 April 2017

Date revision requested : 28 May 2017

Date revision received : 15 July 2017

Date accepted : 27 August 2017

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