Social networking programs designed to help people slim down could lead to the global combat obesity, based on research.
Analysis by researchers from Imperial College London combining the outcomes of 12 previous studies implies that such programs have achieved modest but significant leads to helping participants lose weight.
The paper is one of 10 reports on global healthcare policy written for the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), an initiative of Qatar Foundation, and published within the September issue of the journal Health Affairs.
Obesity is an increasing issue in developed and developing countries, adding to other diseases for example diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and mental health problems and leading to rising costs for health services.
The inaugural WISH Summit in 2013 convened world experts to go over innovative methods to address major global health issues, including obesity.? One innovation they considered is the utilization of social networking sites such as Facebook to provide obese people with a residential area of support from both clinicians and peers to help them lose weight.
The researchers compiled data from 12 studies spread over the US, Europe, east Asia and Australia which trialed social media services to lose weight, involving 1,884 participants in total. The amalgamated results demonstrated that people who used these services achieved a collective decrease in body mass index with a value of 0.64, which the authors call modest but significant.
Health policy researcher and surgeon Dr. Hutan Ashrafian, the lead author from the study at the Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, said: “One benefit of using social networking over other methods is that it provides the potential to considerably less expensive and simple for day-to-day use when compared to traditional approaches.? The sensation to be a part of a community allows patients to attract on the support of the peers in addition to clinicians. They can get advice using their doctor without the inconvenience or cost of needing to travel, and clinicians can offer advice to many patients simultaneously.
“There will also be possible downsides, such as potential privacy issues and a need for the patient to become internet savvy, so it might not be suitable for everyone.
“The studies we checked out were the first one to investigate social media methods to obesity. There needs to be more research into el born area to see what approaches work best for which patients in light of the dramatic global adoption of social networking tools and content.
“The utilization of social media to treat obesity encourages patients to be more pro-active and empowers these to contribute towards their own treatment. It’s not the only means to fix the obesity epidemic, however it should be introduced being an component of every country’s obesity strategy.”
Reference: H. Ashrafian et al. ‘Social Networking Strategies That Try to Reduce Obesity Have Achieved Significant Although Modest Results.’ Health Affairs 33, No. 9 (2014) doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2014.0370
