BackgroundBeing overweight and obese are major risk factors for noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases. The prevalence of overweight and obesity is high throughout the world and these issues are very serious in the Shunyi District in China. As mobile technologies have rapidly developed, mobile apps such as WeChat are well accepted and have the potential to improve health behaviors.ObjectiveThis study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile app (WeChat) as an intervention on weight loss behavior.MethodsThis study was conducted among an occupational population from August 2015 to February 2016 in the Shunyi District of Beijing. Before the intervention, the Shunyi District Government released an official document for weight loss to all 134 government agencies and enterprises in Shunyi District. Participants willing to use our official WeChat account were enrolled in a WeChat group and received 6 months of interventions for weight loss; those who were not willing to use the account were in a control group given routine publicity on weight loss.ResultsIn total, 15,310 occupational participants including 3467 participants (22.65%) in the control group and 11,843 participants (77.35%) in the WeChat group were enrolled. Participants in the WeChat group lost more weight (mean 2.09, SD 3.43 kg) than people in the control group (mean 1.78, SD 2.96 kg), and the difference in mean weight loss between the two groups for males was significant based on the stratification of age and educational level. To control for confounding factors and to explore the effects of WeChat on weight loss, the propensity score method with a multinominal logistic regression was utilized. For males, this showed that the WeChat group (with both active and inactive subgroups) had a higher probability of maintaining weight, weight loss from 1 to 2 kg, or weight loss more than 2 kg than the control group. However, the control group had higher probability of weight loss from 0 to 1 kg. Being active in WeChat was likely to be associated with weight loss. The more active participants were in the weight loss program via WeChat, the more weight they lost.ConclusionsThe weight loss intervention campaign based on an official WeChat account focused on an occupation-based population in Shunyi District was effective for males. The more active male participants were in using WeChat, the more weight they lost. There might be no effect or there may even be a negative effect on weight loss for females. Future research should focus on how to improve adherence to the WeChat weight loss interventions, to improve and refine the WeChat content such as developing a variety of materials to attract interest, and to protect personal privacy, especially for females.

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Objectives This study was aimed to develop a health belief model scale for exercise among Chinese residents to describe the relationships between health beliefs and exercise for promoting residents to adopt or maintain exercise programs. Methods Participants were from two projects, Project 1 with 3833 participants and Project 2 with 7319 participants. A pool of 21 items was developed based on a small-scale qualitative study about health beliefs of exercise and literature. Internal consistency and construct validity of the scale were evaluated with Cronbach’s α coefficient, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and second-order confirmatory factor analysis. Results A final version of 18 items loaded on six factors which could explain 60.30-% of variance was observed after EFA. The internal consistency of the final version with 18 items performed in Project 1 was acceptable (0.609). The reliability of the six subscales was good with Cronbach’s α coefficient of 0.628, 0.713, 0.628, 0.801, 0.676 and 0.838 for perceived benefits, perceived objective barriers, perceived subjective barriers, self-efficacy, perceived severity and cues to action, respectively. CFA and second-order CFA indicated a good fit to data. Conclusions The Health Belief Model Scale for Exercise(HBMS-E) is a valid and reliable instrument to assess health beliefs of exercise among residents in China. Understanding the health beliefs of exercise will help health professionals to develop effective interventions for health and evaluate the effectiveness.

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