Phone-Based Interventions to Control Obesity in Children Under Six Years of Age: A Systematic Review on Features and Effects

Context: This systematic review was conducted to investigate the role of phones (telephone and mobile phone) in interventions designed to control obesity in children under age six and to determine the features and effects of these interventions.
Evidence Acquisition: A systematic search was conducted of the electronic databases (until November 2016). Randomized controlled trials that assessed the effects of phone-based interventions to control obesity in children under age six were included.
Of the 1920 papers accessed, 38 were relevant based on title and abstract. After review of the full texts, five studies were deemed eligible for inclusion. The results showed that in two studies phone-based interventions succeeded in improving the children's weight and BMI while in three other studies they were not. Among the functionalities of a telephone and mobile phone (e.g. text messaging and smartphone applications), only phone calls were used to communicate with participants. Only one of the included studies had used the phone as its main intervention, in the other studies the phone was used as part of a multicomponent intervention. Most of the included studies used phone calls to encourage and remind the participants about their children’s nutritional status and physical activity.
Although the numerous functions of phones can be used independently or in combination with other interventions for controlling obesity, so far, only the phone call function has been used for children under age six. Moreover, there is still no strong evidence on their positive effects on obesity control in children under age six.