Use and Effectiveness of Social-Media-Delivered Weight Loss Interventions among Teenagers and Young Adults: A Systematic Review

Blanca Lozano-Chacon, Victor Suarez-Lledo and Javier Alvarez-Galvez
Additional contact information
Blanca Lozano-Chacon: Computational Social Science DataLab (CS2 DataLab), University Institute for Social Sustainable Development (INDESS), University of Cadiz, 11003 Cádiz, Spain
Victor Suarez-Lledo: Computational Social Science DataLab (CS2 DataLab), University Institute for Social Sustainable Development (INDESS), University of Cadiz, 11003 Cádiz, Spain
Javier Alvarez-Galvez: Computational Social Science DataLab (CS2 DataLab), University Institute for Social Sustainable Development (INDESS), University of Cadiz, 11003 Cádiz, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-20

Abstract: Obesity is a risk factor that exponentially increases morbidity and mortality in the world. Today, new health strategies are being implemented based on the use of social media but the use and effectiveness for these interventions needs to be assessed. The objective of this systematic review is to assess the impact of social-media-delivered weight loss interventions among teenagers and young adults. We searched PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, PsycINFO, and OVID to identify articles that focused on this topic. Fourteen studies were included in the final review. The commitment of the participants was found to be fundamental factor when assessing the impact of social-media-delivered weight loss interventions, but also the social context in which the interventions were carried out. Our study highlights the potential of social media platforms to address weight loss interventions among younger groups. The works evaluated showed the usefulness of social media for the adequate monitoring and control in these groups. Finally, the current variety of study designs in this field highlights the need for greater homogeneity in their methodology and applications, which is a fundamental step before these tools could be considered a suitable tool for overweight management in clinical practice.

Keywords: social media; interventions; weight loss; teenagers; young adults (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8493/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8493/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:16:p:8493-:d:612510

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().