A 30-Second Intervention During Primary Care Visits Can Effectively Encourage Weight Loss

A brief, 30-second intervention during primary care visits can effectively encourage weight loss in obese patients, according to a recent study.

The authors note that adherence to guidelines recommending physician intervention and referral of patients to behavioral weight loss programs is low, and that little to no research into whether brief physician intervention is effective at reducing body weight in obese patients has been conducted in the past.
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To further examine this issue, the researchers conducted a parallel, 2-arm, randomized trial of 1882 patients who consulted 137 primary care physicians in England and were screened for obesity. The participants were aged 18 years or older, had a body mass index of at least 30 kg/m², and a high body fat percentage.

The participants were randomly assigned to one of two 30-second interventions. In the active group, participants were referred to a weight management group consisting of 12 sessions of 1 hour each, once per week, and a follow-up appointment with the primary care physician if the referral was accepted. In the control group, patients were advised that their health would benefit from weight loss.

Overall, 77% of those in the active group agreed to attend the weight management group and 40% actually attended, compared with 9% of those in the control group. Mean weight change at 12 months was 2.43 kg in the active group and 1.04 kg in the control group. Reactions to the brief interventions did not differ significantly between the groups.

“A behaviorally-informed, very brief, physician-delivered opportunistic intervention is acceptable to patients and an effective way to reduce population mean weight,” the researchers concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Aveyard P, Lewis A, Tearne S, et al. Screening and brief intervention for obesity in primary care: a parallel, two-arm, randomised trial [published online October 24, 2016]. Lancet. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31893-1.