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Download fileTesting the short‐term effectiveness of primary care referral to online weight loss programmes: A randomised controlled trial
journal contribution
posted on 2021-10-15, 09:11 authored by Michaela Noreik, Claire MadiganClaire Madigan, Nerys M Astbury, Rhiannon M Edwards, Ushma Galal, Jill Mollison, Fitsum Ghebretinsea, Susan A JebbGuidelines ask health professionals to offer brief advice to encourage weight loss for people living with obesity. We tested whether referral to one of three online programmes
could lead to successful weight loss. A total of 528 participants aged ≥18 years with a
body mass index of ≥30 kg/m2 were invited via a letter from their GP. Participants were
randomised to one of three online weight loss programmes (NHS Weight Loss Plan,
Rosemary Online or Slimming World Online) or to a control group receiving no intervention. Participants self-reported weight at baseline and 8 weeks. The primary outcome
was weight change in each of the active intervention groups compared with control. We
also compared the proportion of participants losing ≥5% or ≥10% of body weight. For
Rosemary, Online mean weight loss was modestly greater than control (-1.5 kg [95%
confidence interval (CI) -2.3 to -0.6]) and more than three times as many participants in
this group lost ≥5% (relative risk [RR] = 3.64, 95% CI: 1.63–8.1). For Slimming World,
mean weight loss was not significantly different from control (?0.8 kg [95%CI ?1.7 to
0.1]), twice as many participants lost ≥5% (RR = 2.70, 1.17–6.23). There was no significant difference in weight loss for participants using the NHS Weight Loss Plan (-0.4 kg,
[95% CI -1.3 to 0.5]), or the proportion losing ≥5% (RR = 2.09, 0.87–5.01). Only one of
three online weight loss programmes was superior to no intervention and the effect size
modest among participants living with obesity.
Funding
NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre
History
School
- Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Published in
Clinical ObesityVolume
11Issue
6Publisher
WileyVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© The authorsPublisher statement
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Wiley under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Acceptance date
2021-06-30Publication date
2021-10-06Copyright date
2021ISSN
1758-8103eISSN
1758-8111Publisher version
Language
- en