Behavioural weight management practices within primary care

Madigan, Claire (2014). Behavioural weight management practices within primary care. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

The prevalence of obesity is high and the primary care setting enables treatment to be offered to large numbers of people. This thesis investigates behavioural weight management interventions in primary care. A noninferiority analysis was used to examine whether four behavioural weight management programmes differed in weight loss at three and 12 months. Commercial programmes resulted in similar weight losses and the NHS programme was inferior at three months, with an inconclusive result at 12 months.

GPs can refer patients to commercial weight management programmes, however not all people use these types of programmes. There is a need to find simple effective interventions that can be offered in primary care. Self-weighing may be one such strategy for weight loss; a randomised controlled trial investigated this. There were no significant differences in weight loss between baseline and three months. Self-weighing may be more effective for weight loss maintenance as people have developed skills to manage their weight. A quasi randomised controlled trial was used to investigate this and found encouragement to self-weigh prevented 0.7 kg weight regain. A systematic review and meta-analysis investigated the effect of self-weighing. Overall, self-weighing as part a multicomponent weight loss intervention resulted in greater weight loss but isolated there was no evidence of effectiveness.

In conclusion commercial weight management programmes result in similar weight losses and patients could be referred to such programmes by primary care. Self-weighing may be an effective strategy that primary care practitioners could advise patients to use combined with other behavioural strategies.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):