Text Messages + Financial Incentives Boost Weight Loss at 12 Months

WEDNESDAY, May 15, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Among men with obesity, an intervention with text messaging plus financial incentive significantly improves weight loss compared with a control group, according to a study published online May 14 in the Journal of the American Medical Association to coincide with the annual meeting of the European Congress on Obesity, hosted by the European Association for the Study of Obesity from May 12 to 15 in Venice, Italy.

Pat Hoddinott, M.B, B.S, Ph.D., from Stirling University in the United Kingdom, and colleagues randomly assigned 585 men with body mass index ≥30 kg/m² to 12 months of behavioral-focused text messages combined with financial incentives (196 participants), 12 months of behavioral-focused text messages alone (194 participants), or a waiting list (control group; 195 participants).

The researchers found that at 12-month follow-up, the mean percent weight change was significantly greater in the group receiving text messaging with a financial incentive (mean difference, −3.2 percent) compared with control. However, weight change was not significantly greater in the text messaging-alone group (mean difference, −1.4 percent) compared with control. The 12-month mean percentage weight changes from baseline were −4.8 percent for the group receiving text messaging with financial incentives, −2.7 percent for the text messaging-alone group, and −1.3 percent for the control group.

"Including men with obesity living in disadvantaged areas in making decisions about the design of the incentives, number of assessments, goals, and text messages may have contributed to the effectiveness of the text messaging with the financial incentives intervention," the authors write.

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