Can texting prevent obesity in young children? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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With about one in five children in the US falling into the obese range, trying to find a way to intervene effectively is top of mind for many pediatricians and public health experts. That’s because childhood obesity paves the way for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and a host of other health problems. Now a study co-led by Eliana Perrin, a pediatrics expert at Johns Hopkins, has shown that a comprehensive program of texting goals for parents helps.

Perrin: At the end of two years what we discovered is that the people who were in the half that got the extra texting did better. Their weights for lengths were healthier over that two years of life so they grew healthier and then at age 2 they had less obesity if they were in that group. So we prevented obesity. :22 

Perrin notes that any intervention that relies on pediatricians to deliver is unlikely to be effective, since time constraints and infrequent contact render such efforts limited. The text intervention can be timed to a recipient’s preferences and occur much more frequently. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.