Facebook support program showed a fruit-intake benefit during adolescent obesity care
Fruit consumption improved more with the added program; several other changes occurred in both study groups.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Adding APOLO-Teens to usual care produced a greater improvement in fruit consumption over the intervention period among participants included in the analysis. Both groups improved on several other eating, mood, and weight-related measures. Those shared changes cannot be credited specifically to the Facebook program, and the amount of additional fruit consumed was not reported.
The final analysis included 77 of the original one hundred and thirty-five participants. This abstract-based account cannot determine how exclusions affected the result or whether the fruit-intake change was large enough to matter in daily life.
What researchers found
Change in fruit consumption
Over 6 months, the group-by-time test favored APOLO-Teens plus usual care versus usual care alone. This tests whether change differed between groups; the intake difference was not reported.
Fruit intake distinguished the groups
The fruit-consumption result reflects a difference in how the groups changed over time. It supports an added program effect in the analyzed participants, although statistical significance alone does not establish the practical size of that effect.
Shared changes answer a different question
Both groups ate more vegetables and fewer pastries or cakes, while depressive symptoms, grazing, and standardized body-mass scores declined. These changes over time do not demonstrate that the added program produced greater improvements in those outcomes.
The original publication
Feasibility and Effectiveness of a Social Network-Based Intervention for Adolescents Undergoing Weight Loss Treatment: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Ramalho SM, Saint-Maurice PF, Silva D et al.
Nutrients · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40871614
- Record checked
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