Pediatric Obesity Treatment via Telehealth: Current Evidence and Future Directions

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Health
• Digital Health Interventions
• Obesity Management

Background:

• Telehealth can overcome barriers to in-person pediatric weight management, improving accessibility.
• This review focuses on lifestyle interventions using telehealth over the last five years.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review recent (past 5 years) pediatric weight management interventions delivered via telehealth.
• To describe findings, impressions, and future directions for telehealth in pediatric weight management.

Main Methods:

• Narrative review of the literature.
• Included 20 studies on unique pediatric telehealth weight management interventions published in the last five years.

Main Results:

• Most studies reported statistically significant BMI z-score reductions, high retention, attendance, and satisfaction.
• However, mean BMI z-score decreases were marginal (approx. 0.10) in most studies.
• Pediatric telehealth weight management interventions are feasible and acceptable, but effect sizes were often not reported.

Conclusions:

• Telehealth is a feasible and acceptable method for delivering pediatric weight management interventions.
• Further research with rigorous designs, larger samples, and longer follow-up is needed to establish clinical impact and effect size.