Get Social: Randomized Trial of a Social Network Delivered Lifestyle Intervention
Condition: Weight Loss
MeSH terms: Weight Loss
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The present study is a non-inferiority trial comparing the efficacy of a lifestyle
      intervention delivered entirely via an online social network to a traditional lifestyle
      intervention delivered via group meetings.
    

Detailed description: 
      Lifestyle interventions have had established efficacy for over a decade but are still not
      widely disseminated, largely due to high cost and patient and provider burden. Online social
      networks are an alternative way to deliver lifestyle counseling and delivery via this
      modality may virtually eliminate patient visits, the main source of cost and burden in
      traditional modalities. Interactions in online social networks are frequent, brief, and
      asynchronous because users login to their online communities during downtime during work and
      leisure time, or when they simply feel a need for social connection. As such, social media
      becomes embedded into people's daily lives. This provides an opportunity to embed health
      behavior change programming into people's daily lives. Thus far in the literature, existing
      online social networks have been used as component of web- or mobile app-based lifestyle
      interventions but not as the primary modality for intervention delivery. The purpose of this
      work is to conduct a non-inferiority trial to compare a lifestyle intervention delivered
      entirely via private groups on the online social network Twitter to a traditional in-person
      group-based lifestyle intervention. Using a randomized trial (N=328), investigators will test
      whether a lifestyle intervention delivered via an online social network (Get Social
      condition) will result in a mean percent weight loss at 12 months that is not appreciably
      worse than the gold-standard in-person group-based lifestyle intervention (Traditional
      condition), i.e., the social network arm will not lose on average 2% less than the in-person
      arm. Secondary non-inferiority outcomes include weight loss at 12 months, and dietary intake
      and physical activity at 12-months. Investigators hypothesize that the Get Social condition
      will be less expensive than the Traditional condition. To understand for whom an online
      social network modality is most suited, investigators will test predictors of weight loss in
      the Get Social condition including engagement, age, sociability, neuroticism, openness, and
      smartphone and social network use. Investigators hypothesize that people who are younger,
      more sociable, engage more on the social network, higher in neuroticism/openness, and heavier
      overall smartphone and social network users will lose more weight in the Get Social
      condition. Findings from this study may support an intervention delivery modality that is
      more conducive to settings like worksites, health plans, and clinics that serve large
      populations but have limited space, staffing, and resources for traditional in person
      interventions.
    

Intervention name(s): Get Social; Traditional; Smartphone
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral; Device
Intervention description(s): Online-delivered weight loss intervention; Group-delivered weight loss intervention; A smartphone is needed to use MyFitnessPal for all participants and to access Twitter for the Get Social participants
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment