Technology Use Enhances Short-Term Weight Loss for the Obese
Layering connective mobile technology and coaching via telephone on top of the standard obesity treatment offered at all Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers improved weight loss by 3.1% among obese participants.
Results of the small randomized trial conducted by Bonnie Spring, PhD, from the Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, and coauthors were published online December 10 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Overweight and obese adults can experience clinically significant weight loss through intensive multicomponent behavioral treatment, which includes patient-driven activities such as setting weight-loss goals, self-monitoring, improving diet, increasing time spent exercising, and strategizing how to maintain needed lifestyle changes, Dr. Spring and coauthors write. The wrinkle is that physicians are short on time, and in-person intervention is the most expensive treatment option.
Although the US Preventive Services Task Force recommends intensive behavioral treatment for all obese adults, recent evidence suggests such interventions do not require face-to-face meetings.
The authors sought to determine whether adding interventions that leverage technology, such as electronically transmitting data to behavioral coaches and conducting coaching sessions via telephone compared with chatting face to face, could improve outcomes seen with standard weight-loss treatments alone.
Source: by Diedtra Henderson for Medscape Medical News on December 11, 2012
Read the Full Article at http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/776055?src=nldne
