Weight Management of Diabetic Patients: Can Text Messaging Help?

The prevalence of obesity and diabetes have steadily increased over the past three decades with projections calling for 83% of men and 72% of women becoming overweight or obese by 2020; similarly, the incidence of women with diabetes is projected to increase from 37 % to 44% (Shute, N., 2011). These drastic increases have brought about a dramatic growth of innovative disease management tools that have proven to increase patient control over their disease as well as enhance patient-practitioner correspondence. The literature provided information involving the use of text messaging to prompt the patients to increase their adherence to the treatment regime to help control their BMI levels and overall obesity rates throughout the study. The purpose of the study is to examine the extent to which a text messaging intervention can effectively reduce overweight/obesity in adult diabetic patients. More specifically, our research questions are: (1). Is a text messaging intervention efficacious at reducing overweight/obesity in adult diabetic patients? (2). Does a text messaging intervention have a differential effect on reducing overweight/obesity in adult diabetic patients based on their socio-demographic characteristics, and glucose level? The secondary analysis of 133 diabetic patients in Denver, Colorado concluded that despite the vast amounts of literature supporting the use of text messaging, the weight and BMI of these patients did not alter during the study, shifting from a mean BMI of 33.7 to 33.6. This study provided insight into the need for further examination between the factors linking diabetes and obesity as well as the use of technology to help enhance disease adherence. Recommendations for this study include using a larger population with a wider variety of age and socioeconomic status as well as using multiple tools to measure obesity such as abdominal circumference and skin folds tests