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Primary Care Weight-Loss
Initiative Cost-Effective
posted
03/28/03
By six months patients had dropped an average of 10.5lbs (4.28 kilograms), with
43% shedding 5% or more of their original weight, and 13% losing 10% or more.
A project designed to
improve obesity management programs offered through primary care clinics has
been a success, according to preliminary results.
The Counterweight
program aims to assess and improve obesity management in 80 practices across
7 regions of the UK, the project's national coordinator Hazel Ross told a
meeting of the Association for the Study of Obesity, in London.
The researchers
audited each practice's current situation and needs, and then offered specialist
training. The success of its weight-loss programs was then evaluated after 3 and
6 months.
The first assessment
of the practices' existing programs showed "an under-recognition of obesity and
a recording problem," Ross said. Only 57% of men and 70% of women had their body
mass index recorded in their patient record.
The researcher
reported data on the effect of primary care-based weight loss for 682 people
with a mean body mass index of 37, three-quarters of whom had another medical
condition related to their obesity such as heart disease, diabetes, back pain
and arthritis.
After 3 months, the
participants, who were mostly women, lost an average of 7.3lbs (3.32 kilograms).
By six months they had dropped an average of 9.4lbs (4.28 kilograms), with 43%
shedding 5% or more of their original weight, and 13% losing 10% or more.
"Our preliminary data
show weight loss can be achieved with modest resources," Ross told the experts
attending the meeting.
"The Counterweight
program is a realistic model that in the future could affect obesity treatments
in primary care."
Source: Diabetes In Control Dot Com.
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