FFIT program significantly improved obesity among men

Men who participated in the Football Fans in Training, or FFIT, weight loss and healthy living program lost 5% of their original body weight after 1 year, according to researchers.

“We now have ‘gold standard’ evidence that the FFIT program can help men lose weight and keep it off. After 12 months, the difference in weight loss between men who did the program and men in a comparison group, who did not do the program, was 4.94 kg,” Sally Wyke, PhD, of the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom, said in a press release.

Wyke and colleagues conducted a two-group, pragmatic, randomized controlled trial of 747 men aged 35 to 65 years with a BMI ≥28 and who were fans of 13 Scottish professional football (soccer) clubs.

Sally Wyke

The patients were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n=374) or comparison group (n=374), in a 1:1 fashion, with 12 community coaching sessions each week. Of those, 333 (89%) of patients in the intervention group and 355 (95%) of patients in the comparison group completed 12-month assessments.

Positive outcomes

At 12 months, the mean weight loss in men assigned to the intervention group was 5.56 kg (95% CI, 4.7-6.43) compared with 0.58 kg (95% CI, 0.04-1.12) in the comparison group, indicating a mean weight loss between groups of 4.94 kg (95% CI, 3.95-5.94), and a percentage weight loss of 4.36% (95% CI, 3.64-5.08). These results demonstrate that the intervention was favorable (P<.0001), researchers wrote.

The program also was associated with a gain in quality-adjusted life years of 0.015 (95% CI, 0.003-0.027) and an incremental cost-effectiveness of $22,756.16, according to data.

Only two of eight serious adverse events were related to the program, researchers wrote. These included one gallbladder removal and one ruptured Achilles’ tendon.

FFIT serves as model for future

“Weight management and dieting are often wrongly viewed as women’s issues, meaning that some men do not want to take part in existing weight management programs. The FFIT program shows that men are keen and able to make positive changes to their health in the right circumstances, and the football club is a great setting for weight management and other health initiatives for men,” Kate Hunt, PhD, of the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow, said in the press release. “Participants really enjoyed being with other men like them, with a shared interest in football and similar health issues to address. They loved having the opportunity to spend time at the club, using parts of the stadium that they couldn’t ordinarily access. And they appreciated the chance to be encouraged, trained, and informed by the club’s coaches. This model has real potential for the future.”

Kate Hunt

In an accompanying editorial, David Lubans, PhD, of the Priority Research Centre in Physical Activity and Nutrition at the University of Newcastle in Australia, wrote that the program developed by Hunt and colleagues is innovative and has potential for change among this patient population.

“Professional sporting organizations provide convenient access to many overweight men, and the findings from the FFIT study could encourage researchers and health professionals to use this strategy in other sports (eg, rugby union, American football, and basketball) to combat the global obesity epidemic,” Lubans wrote.

For more information:

Hunt K. Lancet. 2014;doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62420-4.

Lubans D. Lancet. 2014;doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62710-5.

Disclosure: Two researchers report financial ties with Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche and Servier.