A scoping review of e/mHealth interventions for weight management in racial and ethnic minority adults in the United States.

IMPORTANCE

Obesity and chronic diseases disproportionately burden racial/ethnic minority adults in the United States (U.S.) (eg, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander), partially owing to barriers to receiving obesity treatment. While eHealth/mHealth-supported interventions offer a potential scalable solution and have proliferated in recent years, the last evidence synthesis was published in 2018.

OBJECTIVE

Given the wide variation in intervention approaches, we aimed to map current evidence on weight management programs targeting U.S. racial and ethnic minority adults. We sought to understand the e/mHealth tools used, the extent to which interventions were tailored, and how they addressed barriers and achieved effectiveness in reducing health disparities.

METHODS

We performed a Joanna Briggs Institute/Preferred Reporting Items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses and related scoping review guidance-guided search of MEDLINE, Cochrane, Embase, CINAHL Plus, and PsycINFO (inception-June 2025) for U.S. English-language studies (>50% minority adults ≥18 y, BMI ≥ 25 kg/m²) using electronic/mobile health (e/mHealth) for weight management.

RESULTS

Dual review of 4811 records yielded 51 studies (45 randomized controlled trials (RCTs)). Most studies used smartphone applications, a form of messaging to phones, and/or wearables (86%; 35/51) as opposed to other eHealth approaches. Interventions were culturally tailored in 34 studies (67%), yet few used co-design methods with the target population (3/51).

CONCLUSIONS

Interventions that use e/mHealth show moderate promise for scalable weight management, with available but uneven tailoring. Short-term/individual designs limit equity and sustainability, especially for underrepresented men and rural groups. Prioritization of co-designed, social determinants of health (SDOH) and theory-grounded (eg, socio-ecological) trials ≥12 months is necessary for scalable, responsive solutions.