Technology alone insufficient for meaningful weight loss in obesity, study shows

May 15 2024Northwestern University A new Northwestern Medicine study shows that technology alone can't replace the human touch to produce meaningful weight loss in obesity treatment.

The need for low cost but effective obesity treatments delivered by technology has become urgent as the ongoing obesity epidemic exacerbates burgeoning health care costs.In the new SMART study, people who initially only received technology without coach support were less likely to have a meaningful weight loss, considered to be at least 5% of body weight, compared to those who had a human coach at the start.

Previous research showed that mobile health tools for tracking diet, exercise and weight increase engagement in behavioral obesity treatment. Before this new study, it wasn't clear whether they produced clinically acceptable weight loss in the absence of support from a human coach. Drug and surgical interventions also are available for obesity but have some drawbacks. "They're very expensive, convey medical risks and side effects and aren't equitably accessible," Spring said. Most people who begin taking a GLP-1 agonist stop taking the drug within a year against medical advice, she noted.

How the study worked The SMART Weight Loss Management study was a randomized controlled trial that compared two different stepped care treatment approaches for adult obesity. Stepped care offers a way to spread treatment resources across more of the population in need. The treatment that uses the least resources but that will benefit some people is delivered first; then treatment is intensified only for those who show insufficient response.

Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)

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