ArticleBMC public health2018
Social media for health promotion and weight management: a critical debate.
Article in BMC public health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 150 citations in OpenAlex.
- Identifying Social Media-Based Interactions That Help Adults to Adhere to Weight Loss Goals: A Systematic Review.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Pooled it
- Social Media and eHealth Literacy Among Older Adults: Systematic Literature Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Social media-based interventions for adults with obesity and overweight: a meta-analysis and meta-regression.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2023Pooled it
- The Impact of Social Media Interventions on Weight Reduction and Physical Activity Improvement Among Healthy Adults: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- Use and Effectiveness of Social-Media-Delivered Weight Loss Interventions among Teenagers and Young Adults: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- The effects of metformin on simple obesity: a meta-analysis.Endocrine · 2018Pooled it
- Trial
- A modern web-based health promotion program for patients in Greece with diabetes 2 and obesity: an interventional study.BMC public health · 2023Trial
- Conditions for the Successful Integration of an eHealth Tool "StopBlues" Into Community-Based Interventions in France: Results From a Multiple Correspondence Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Trial
- Review of the Use of Digital Therapeutics for Obesity Treatment: Toward a Psychological Phenotyping.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Review
- A Comparative Study between Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy and One Anastomosis Gastric Bypass on Serum Zinc Levels.Obesity surgery · 2026Article
- Social media as a self-reported source of weight-loss information: a cross-sectional comparison with traditional sources among Arab young adults.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- New media in family sustainability: mechanisms for building social resilience through awareness programs.Frontiers in sociology · 2026Article
- Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Toward Weight Management Among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Evaluation of social media videos on weight-loss surgery and GLP-1 agonists: a content quality and reliability analysis.Surgical endoscopy · 2025Article
- Assessing Community and Social Media Influence to Increase Influenza Vaccine Uptake among Youth in Soweto, South Africa (The Bambisana Study): Protocol for a Mixed Methods Pretest-Posttest Intervention Study.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Perceptions of Executive Decision Makers on Using Social Media in Effective Health Communication: Qualitative Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Review
- A Structured Social Media Health Support Program after Bariatric Surgery.Applied clinical informatics · 2024Observational
- Social Media in the Management of Obesity and Diabetes: An Underutilised Population Educational Tool.Diabetes therapy : research, treatment and education of diabetes and related disorders · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn 2016 an estimated 1.9 billion adults world-wide were either overweight or obese. The health consequences of obesity are responsible for 2.8 million preventable deaths per year. The WHO now considers obesity as a global epidemic and recommends population-wide health promotion strategies to address this issue. Weight gain is caused by increased energy intake and physical inactivity, so treatment should focus on changes to behaviour regarding diet and physical activity. DISCUSSION: The WHO has also recognised the importance of social resources as a valuable agent for behaviour change in health promotion. Social resources are translated at the community level as support provided by significant others such as family, partners and peers, in the form of information, material aid and encouragement. Social support has been shown to improve health and well-being, whereas social isolation has been shown to have a negative impact on health outcomes. Social support provided by peers has been shown to be a useful strategy to employ in weight management programmes. The documented increased use of ICT and social media has presented health promoters with a potentially useful medium to increase social support for weight management.
conclusionWhile the use of social media for health promotion is an emerging field of investigation, preliminary research suggests that it increases participant engagement, and may provide a cost-effective tool to provide social support for individuals participating in weight management programmes. With stringent privacy protocols in place, social media may be a useful, cost-effective accompaniment to multifactorial weight management programmes. However more research is needed to identify how to make the best use of social media as health promotion tool.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.