The Impact of an Online Social Network With Wireless Monitoring Devices on Physical Activity and Weight Loss

Background: Online social networks (OSNs) are a new, promising approach for catalyzing health-related behavior change. To date, the empirical evidence on their impact has been limited. Purpose: Using a randomized trial, we assessed the impact of a health-oriented OSN with accelerometer and scales on participant’s physical activity, weight, and clinical indicators. Methods: A sample of 349 PeaceHealth Oregon employees and family members were randomized to the iWell OSN or a control group and followed for 6 months in 2010-2011. The iWell OSN enabled participants to connect with “friends,” make public postings, view contacts’ postings, set goals, download the number of their steps from an accelerometer and their weight from a scale, view trends in physical activity and weight, and compete against others in physical activity. Both control and intervention participants received traditional education material on diet and physical activity. Laboratory data on weight and clinical indicators (triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein, or low-density lipoprotein), and self-reported data on physical activity, were collected at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. Results: At 6 months, the intervention group increased leisure walking minutes by 164% compared with 47% in the control group. The intervention group also lost more weight than the controls (5.2 pounds compared with 1.5 pounds). There were no observed significant differences in vigorous exercise or clinical indicators between the 2 groups. Among intervention participants, greater OSN use, as measured by number of private messages sent, was associated with a greater increase in leisure walking and greater weight reduction over the study period. Conclusions: The study provides evidence that interventions using OSNs can successfully promote increases in physical activity and weight loss.