Pediatric ObesityNCT07501546
Enhancing Childhood Obesity Interventions Through Digital Media Tools
A study testing Immediate Automated Push Notifications and Delayed Automated Push Notifications in people with Pediatric Obesity and Health Literacy, run by Taipei City Hospital at 1 site in Taiwan.
Trial summary
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a LINE Official Account (a mobile messaging platform) as a digital health education tool to enhance parental engagement with childhood obesity-related health literacy content. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and older
- Conditions the study is for
- Pediatric Obesity, Health Literacy
- What is being tested?
- Immediate Automated Push Notifications and Delayed Automated Push Notifications
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 567 participants
- Where
- 1 siteTaiwan
- Study dates
- 3 Feb 2024to 30 Sep 2024
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Parents or legal guardians of primary school (grades 1 and 4) or junior high school (grade 7) students in Zhongzheng and Wanhua districts, Taipei City
- Their child was identified as obese (BMI above the age- and sex-specific 95th percentile based on Taiwan national standards) through school health screenings conducted by Taipei City Hospital
- Parents provided consent for the public health program to calculate their child's BMI classification and to be contacted
- Parents declined the invitation to participate in the face-to-face Healthy Weight Clinic program during telephone contact
- Parents were able to use the LINE messaging application on a smartphone
Who cannot join
- Parents who accepted the face-to-face Healthy Weight Clinic invitation during initial telephone contact
- Parents whose child participated in another research study within the preceding month
- Parents unable to access the LINE messaging application
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
Taiwan1 site
Taipei City Hospital, Heping Fuyou Branch, Department of Pediatrics
Taipei, Taiwas, 100
About this study
Official title: An Experimental Study on Enhancing Childhood Obesity Interventions Through Digital Media Tools: A Case Study of Taipei City Hospital
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a LINE Official Account (a mobile messaging platform) as a digital health education tool to enhance parental engagement with childhood obesity-related health literacy content.
Parents of school-aged children (grades 1, 4, and 7) identified as obese through school health screenings in Taipei, Taiwan, who declined face-to-face clinic participation, were invited to join the LINE Official Account platform.
Read more
Participants were allocated to either an immediate push notification group (receiving automated educational messages for 24 weeks from enrollment) or a delayed push notification group (receiving no push notifications for the first 12 weeks, followed by 12 weeks of push notifications).
The study compared parental engagement behaviors between the two groups, including the proportion of users clicking interactive educational content and the click frequency per user, to determine whether the timing of push notification initiation affects parental engagement with digital health education content related to childhood obesity.
Read the detailed description
Background: Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern in Taiwan. A hospital-based childhood obesity intervention program in Taipei faced consistently low parental participation rates (6-10%), despite school-based screening identifying eligible children. To address this gap, a digital health education platform was developed using the LINE Official Account messaging application to deliver health literacy content to parents who declined face-to-face clinic visits.
Intervention: The LINE Official Account platform incorporated six functional modules: Understanding Obesity, Dietary Guidance, Exercise Guidance, Family Lifestyle Habits, Course Resources, and Healthy Weight Clinic Introduction. Educational content was designed based on the Health Belief Model (addressing perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy) and Nudge theory (employing reminders, imagery, simplification, rewards, defaults, and social norms).
Study Design: This was a quasi-randomized trial using systematic allocation. Parents were allocated to two groups based on the sequential order of consent form returns during telephone contact. Since the team could not predict which parents would decline clinic participation during phone calls, this systematic alternating allocation achieved a quasi-random distribution. The experimental group (Channel 1) received automated push notifications from week 1 through week 24. The control group (Channel 2) received no push notifications during weeks 1-12, with notifications beginning at week 13 through week 24. Both groups had identical educational content available on the platform at all times; the intervention variable was the timing of automated push notification delivery.
Outcomes: Daily user activity data were collected from the LINE Official Account backend system over the 24-week study period. Primary outcome measures included the daily proportion of users clicking interactive educational messages and the daily click rate per user. Secondary outcomes included page view rates, system operation rates, and click differences across educational topic categories.
Statistical Analysis: Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U tests, Chi-square tests, Spearman correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis were employed. Significance level was set at p<0.05. All analyses were performed using IBM SPSS.
- Conditions
- Pediatric Obesity, Health Literacy
- Being tested
- Immediate Automated Push Notifications, Delayed Automated Push Notifications
- Keywords
- Childhood Obesity, Health Literacy, Digital Health, LINE Official Account, mHealth, Push Notification, Health Belief Model, Nudge Theory, Parental Engagement
- Medical subject headings
- Pediatric Obesity
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Immediate Automated Push NotificationsBehavioural
Automated weekly push notifications delivered via LINE Official Account from week 1 through week 24. Each week's push notification included health education content covering topics such as BMI measurement reminders, dietary guidance, exercise guidance, obesity comorbidity awareness, and healthy weight clinic introduction. Content was designed based on the Health Belief Model constructs (perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, cues to action, self-efficacy) and Nudge theory strategies (reminders, imagery, simplification, rewards, defaults, social norms). The 12-week content cycle repeated in weeks 13-24.
Delayed Automated Push NotificationsBehavioural
No automated push notifications during weeks 1-12. Starting from week 13, participants received the same automated weekly push notifications as the experimental group through week 24 (identical content and delivery schedule). During weeks 1-12, the platform content was available for self-directed access but no proactive notifications were sent.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Immediate Push Notification Group | Experimental | Parents joined LINE Official Account Channel 1 and received automated push notifications containing health education content from week 1 through week 24 (total 24 weeks of push notifications). Push notifications included weekly messages covering BMI education, dietary guidance, exercise guidance, obesity comorbidities, and clinic introduction, designed based on the Health Belief Model and Nudge theory. Receives: Behavioral: Immediate Automated Push Notifications |
| Delayed Push Notification Group | Active comparator | Parents joined LINE Official Account Channel 2 and received no automated push notifications during weeks 1-12. Starting from week 13, they received the same automated push notification content as the experimental group through week 24 (total 12 weeks of push notifications). The same educational content was available for self-directed browsing on the platform throughout the entire 24-week period. Receives: Behavioral: Delayed Automated Push Notifications |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Proportion of Children Re-enrolling in the Face-to-face Healthy Weight Clinic Program
The proportion of children whose parents, after joining the LINE Official Account, subsequently chose to re-enroll in the face-to-face Healthy Weight Clinic intervention program at the hospital. This was compared between the push notification period and the non-push notification period as an odds ratio. Note: Due to a very low event rate (n=2 in the immediate push notification group, n=0 in the delayed push notification group), this outcome could not be adequately analyzed statistically. Pre-specified secondary outcomes (digital engagement metrics) were therefore used as the primary analytical focus in the final publication.
Measured: 24 weeks from enrollment
Secondary outcomes (7)
Daily Proportion of Users Clicking Interactive Educational Messages
The number of unique users who clicked on interactive educational content on a given day divided by the cumulative total number of users in the LINE Official Account channel on that day. This measure captures the daily proportion of active users engaging with the educational content.
Measured: 24 weeks from enrollment
Daily Click Rate Per User for Interactive Educational Messages
The total number of clicks on interactive educational content on a given day divided by the cumulative total number of users in the LINE Official Account channel on that day. This measure captures the daily click frequency per user for educational content engagement.
Measured: 24 weeks from enrollment
Daily Page View Rate Per User
The number of page views of the LINE Official Account profile page on a given day divided by the cumulative total number of users on that day.
Measured: 24 weeks from enrollment'
Daily System Operation Rate Per User
The number of system operations (menu interactions) within the LINE Official Account on a given day divided by the cumulative total number of users on that day.
Measured: 24 weeks from enrollment
Average Clicks Per Person on Interactive Educational Content
The total number of clicks on interactive educational messages per person accumulated over the entire study period, compared between the immediate and delayed push notification groups.
Measured: 24 weeks from enrollment
Click Distribution Across Educational Topic Categories
The number of clicks on interactive educational content categorized by seven topic areas (Understanding Body Weight, Dietary Guidance, Exercise Guidance, Family and Lifestyle Habits, Obesity and Comorbidities, Healthy Weight Clinic Introduction, and Course Resources), compared between the two groups.
Measured: 24 weeks from enrollment
Enrollment Rate (Joining Rate)
The proportion of invited parents who actually joined the LINE Official Account channel, calculated as the number of parents who joined divided by the total number of parents who received the invitation SMS, compared between groups.
Measured: At enrollment
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted30 Mar 2026
- Study start3 Feb 2024
- Primary completion19 Jul 2024
- Study completion30 Sep 2024
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Pediatric ObesityStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Health services research
- Allocation
- Non-randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Model description
- Two-arm parallel design. Participants were systematically allocated to either the immediate push notification group or the delayed push notification group based on the sequential order of parental consent form returns. The allocation sequence alternated between the two groups. Since staff could not predict which parents would decline face-to-face clinic participation during telephone contact, this systematic alternating allocation achieved quasi-random group assignment.
- Masking
- Single blind
- Who is masked
- Participant
- Enrolment
- 567 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Taipei City Hospital
- Sponsor type
- Other government
- Collaborators
- National Taiwan University, College of Public Health
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07501546
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- TCHIRB-11210004-E
- Status last verified
- Mar 2026
- First submitted
- 24 Mar 2026
- Last updated
- 30 Mar 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No: Individual participant data will not be shared due to privacy regulations and the nature of the data collected from the LINE Official Account backend system, which contains platform usage metrics only.
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 30 Mar 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- An Experimental Study on Enhancing Childhood Obesity Interventions Through Digital Media Tools: A Case Study of Taipei City Hospital
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07501546
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- TCHIRB-11210004-E
- Conditions
- Pediatric Obesity, Health Literacy
- Keywords
- Childhood Obesity, Health Literacy, Digital Health, LINE Official Account, mHealth, Push Notification, Health Belief Model, Nudge Theory
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 567 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- Taipei City HospitalOther government
- Collaborators
- National Taiwan University, College of Public Health
- Study start
- 3 Feb 2024 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 19 Jul 2024 (actual)
- Study completion
- 30 Sep 2024 (actual)
- First posted
- 30 Mar 2026 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a LINE Official Account (a mobile messaging platform) as a digital health education tool to enhance parental engagement with childhood obesity-related health literacy content.
Parents of school-aged children (grades 1, 4, and 7) identified as obese through school health screenings in Taipei, Taiwan, who declined face-to-face clinic participation, were invited to join the LINE Official Account platform.
Participants were allocated to either an immediate push notification group (receiving automated educational messages for 24 weeks from enrollment) or a delayed push notification group (receiving no push notifications for the first 12 weeks, followed by 12 weeks of push notifications).
The study compared parental engagement behaviors between the two groups, including the proportion of users clicking interactive educational content and the click frequency per user, to determine whether the timing of push notification initiation affects parental engagement with digital health education content related to childhood obesity.
Detailed description
Background: Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern in Taiwan. A hospital-based childhood obesity intervention program in Taipei faced consistently low parental participation rates (6-10%), despite school-based screening identifying eligible children. To address this gap, a digital health education platform was developed using the LINE Official Account messaging application to deliver health literacy content to parents who declined face-to-face clinic visits.
Intervention: The LINE Official Account platform incorporated six functional modules: Understanding Obesity, Dietary Guidance, Exercise Guidance, Family Lifestyle Habits, Course Resources, and Healthy Weight Clinic Introduction. Educational content was designed based on the Health Belief Model (addressing perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy) and Nudge theory (employing reminders, imagery, simplification, rewards, defaults, and social norms).
Study Design: This was a quasi-randomized trial using systematic allocation. Parents were allocated to two groups based on the sequential order of consent form returns during telephone contact. Since the team could not predict which parents would decline clinic participation during phone calls, this systematic alternating allocation achieved a quasi-random distribution. The experimental group (Channel 1) received automated push notifications from week 1 through week 24. The control group (Channel 2) received no push notifications during weeks 1-12, with notifications beginning at week 13 through week 24. Both groups had identical educational content available on the platform at all times; the intervention variable was the timing of automated push notification delivery.
Outcomes: Daily user activity data were collected from the LINE Official Account backend system over the 24-week study period. Primary outcome measures included the daily proportion of users clicking interactive educational messages and the daily click rate per user. Secondary outcomes included page view rates, system operation rates, and click differences across educational topic categories.
Statistical Analysis: Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U tests, Chi-square tests, Spearman correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis were employed. Significance level was set at p<0.05. All analyses were performed using IBM SPSS.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Health services research
- Allocation
- Non-randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind (participant)
- Number of arms
- 2
- Model description
- Two-arm parallel design. Participants were systematically allocated to either the immediate push notification group or the delayed push notification group based on the sequential order of parental consent form returns. The allocation sequence alternated between the two groups. Since staff could not predict which parents would decline face-to-face clinic participation during telephone contact, this systematic alternating allocation achieved quasi-random group assignment.
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Immediate Push Notification Group | Experimental | Behavioral: Immediate Automated Push NotificationsParents joined LINE Official Account Channel 1 and received automated push notifications containing health education content from week 1 through week 24 (total 24 weeks of push notifications). Push notifications included weekly messages covering BMI education, dietary guidance, exercise guidance, obesity comorbidities, and clinic introduction, designed based on the Health Belief Model and Nudge theory. |
| Delayed Push Notification Group | Active comparator | Behavioral: Delayed Automated Push NotificationsParents joined LINE Official Account Channel 2 and received no automated push notifications during weeks 1-12. Starting from week 13, they received the same automated push notification content as the experimental group through week 24 (total 12 weeks of push notifications). The same educational content was available for self-directed browsing on the platform throughout the entire 24-week period. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (5 listed)
- Parents or legal guardians of primary school (grades 1 and 4) or junior high school (grade 7) students in Zhongzheng and Wanhua districts, Taipei City
- Their child was identified as obese (BMI above the age- and sex-specific 95th percentile based on Taiwan national standards) through school health screenings conducted by Taipei City Hospital
- Parents provided consent for the public health program to calculate their child's BMI classification and to be contacted
- Parents declined the invitation to participate in the face-to-face Healthy Weight Clinic program during telephone contact
- Parents were able to use the LINE messaging application on a smartphone
Key exclusion criteria (3 listed)
- Parents who accepted the face-to-face Healthy Weight Clinic invitation during initial telephone contact
- Parents whose child participated in another research study within the preceding month
- Parents unable to access the LINE messaging application
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Immediate Automated Push NotificationsAutomated weekly push notifications delivered via LINE Official Account from week 1 through week 24. Each week's push notification included health education content covering topics such as BMI measurement reminders, dietary guidance, exercise guidance, obesity comorbidity awareness, and healthy weight clinic introduction. Content was designed based on the Health Belief Model constructs (perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, cues to action, self-efficacy) and Nudge theory strategies (reminders, imagery, simplification, rewards, defaults, social norms). The 12-week content cycle repeated in weeks 13-24. | Behavioural | Immediate Push Notification Group |
| Delayed Automated Push NotificationsNo automated push notifications during weeks 1-12. Starting from week 13, participants received the same automated weekly push notifications as the experimental group through week 24 (identical content and delivery schedule). During weeks 1-12, the platform content was available for self-directed access but no proactive notifications were sent. | Behavioural | Delayed Push Notification Group |
Primary outcome
Proportion of Children Re-enrolling in the Face-to-face Healthy Weight Clinic Program
Time frame: 24 weeks from enrollment
The proportion of children whose parents, after joining the LINE Official Account, subsequently chose to re-enroll in the face-to-face Healthy Weight Clinic intervention program at the hospital. This was compared between the push notification period and the non-push notification period as an odds ratio. Note: Due to a very low event rate (n=2 in the immediate push notification group, n=0 in the delayed push notification group), this outcome could not be adequately analyzed statistically. Pre-specified secondary outcomes (digital engagement metrics) were therefore used as the primary analytical focus in the final publication.
7 secondary outcomes
Daily Proportion of Users Clicking Interactive Educational Messages
Time frame: 24 weeks from enrollment
Daily Click Rate Per User for Interactive Educational Messages
Time frame: 24 weeks from enrollment
Daily Page View Rate Per User
Time frame: 24 weeks from enrollment'
Daily System Operation Rate Per User
Time frame: 24 weeks from enrollment
Average Clicks Per Person on Interactive Educational Content
Time frame: 24 weeks from enrollment
Click Distribution Across Educational Topic Categories
Time frame: 24 weeks from enrollment
Enrollment Rate (Joining Rate)
Time frame: At enrollment
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 30 Mar 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No. Individual participant data will not be shared due to privacy regulations and the nature of the data collected from the LINE Official Account backend system, which contains platform usage metrics only.
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
The record lists no contact. Use the official record to reach the sponsor.
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Immediate Automated Push Notifications and Delayed Automated Push Notifications in people with Pediatric Obesity and Health Literacy, run by Taipei City Hospital at 1 site in Taiwan.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 5 inclusion and 3 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 30 Mar 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in Taiwan. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Proportion of Children Re-enrolling in the Face-to-face Healthy Weight Clinic Program (time frame: 24 weeks from enrollment). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 30 Mar 2026.