Mobile health interventions help reduce weight, improve liver enzymes in NAFLD

Mobile health (mHealth) technology interventions can support weight loss and even improve liver enzymes in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), suggest the results of a meta-analysis.

A team of investigators examined the effects of mHealth technology interventions on body weight and liver enzyme levels in NAFLD patients through this meta-analysis. They identified randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that investigated mHealth interventions for NAFLD using the databases of CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CBM, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, and Web of Science form inception to March 2025.

For the data analysis, the investigators used the RevMan 5.2 software. Ten RCTs met the eligibility criteria, with a total of 1,489 patients included.

In the pooled analysis, the use of mHealth technology resulted in a significant reduction in body weight (standardized mean difference [SMD], ‒1.93, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], ‒3.08 to ‒0.77), aspartate aminotransferase (AST; SMD, ‒1.27, 95 percent CI, ‒2.01 to ‒0.54), and alanine transaminase (ALT; SMD, ‒1.48, 95 percent CI, ‒2.20 to ‒0.76) relative to control groups (p<0.05 for all).

“This meta-analysis demonstrates that mHealth technology interventions are effective for weight loss and improvement of liver enzymes in patients with NAFLD, positioning them as a promising and scalable long-term management strategy,” the investigators said.