This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Patients with obesity-related diagnoses failed to continue weight-loss programs
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Receiving an obesity-related disease diagnosis might be enough to motivate patients to start a weight-loss program, but sustaining the efforts poses a challenge, according to findings published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
“Many of us will respond with good intentions when faced with a health crisis and challenge, but it is easy to put this behind us once the shock has passed and the reality that it is not easy or fun to lose weight becomes clear,” Lawrence J. Cheskin, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, said in a press release. “Patients need to keep the reasons they want to change fresh in their minds, set attainable goals, and get ongoing support for their efforts.”
In a retrospective study at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center in North Carolina, Megan McVay, PhD, of Duke University, and colleagues recruited 45,272 VA patients (91% men; mean age, 58 years) with a BMI >30 to determine whether weight change or obesity-related diagnosis in the preceding 6 months were associated with initiation and sustained use of a behavioral weight-management program. Participants, identified from a longitudinal study of the VA cost of obesity, were stratified into two cohorts: initiators and non-initiators.
Researchers categorized weight gain as >3% weight loss, weight stable with <3% change or weight gain of 3% to 4.9%, 5% to 9.9% or >10%.
Data analysis revealed patients were more likely to initiate treatment if they had weight gain of at least 3% (3% to 4.9%: OR=1.64; 95% CI, 1.52-1.77 vs. 5% to 9.9%: OR=1.99; 95% CI, 1.84-2.16 vs. >10%: OR=2.68; 95% CI, 2.32-3.1) or if newly diagnosed with any obesity-related comorbidity (ORs=2.14-3.59). Weight change and new comorbidity diagnoses were not associated with sustained use of the weight-loss program.
“A key take-away message for providers is that the onset of a weight-related health condition may provide an opportunity to broach the subject of weight loss and discuss the potential benefits of joining an evidence-supported behavioral weight loss program,” McVay said in the release. “In the VA, such a program is available at no cost to veterans, but fortunately, other health care settings are beginning to offer these programs for low- or no-cost as well.”
Disclosure: This study was funded by the Diabetes Quality Enhancement Research Initiative and the National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. One researcher was supported by a Research Career Scientist Award, and another was funded by a fellowship grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Collapse
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts