Impact of transition from face-to-face to telehealth on behavioral obesity treatment during the COVID-19 pandemicKathryn M Ross, Chelsea A Carpenter, Kelsey M Arroyo, Meena N Shankar, Fan Yi, Peihua Qiu, Lisa Anthony, Jaime Ruiz, and Michael G Perri
Objective
This study evaluated whether the transition of a face-to-face behavioral intervention to videoconferencing-based telehealth delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significantly smaller weight losses than those typically observed in gold-standard, face-to-face programs.
Methods
Participants were 160 adults with obesity (mean [SD] age = 49.2 [11.9] years, BMI = 36.1 [4.2] kg/m2) enrolled in two cohorts of a 16-week comprehensive weight-management program. Cohort 1 began in person and transitioned to telehealth (Zoom) delivery during week 11 of the intervention because of COVID-19; Cohort 2 was conducted completely remotely. A noninferiority approach (using a clinically relevant noninferiority margin of 2.5%) was used to assess whether the weight losses observed were inferior to the 8% losses from baseline typically produced by gold-standard, face-to-face lifestyle interventions.
Results
From baseline to postintervention, participants lost an average of 7.4 [4.9] kg, representing a reduction of 7.2% [4.6%]. This magnitude of weight change was significantly greater than 5.5% (t[159] = 4.7, p < 0.001), and, thus, was within the proposed noninferiority margin.
Conclusions
These findings demonstrate that the results of behavioral weight-management interventions are robust, whether delivered in person or remotely, and that individuals can achieve clinically meaningful benefits from behavioral treatment even during a global pandemic. Pragmatic “lessons learned,” including modified trial recruitment techniques, are discussed.
Authors
Jaime Ruiz
As well as: Kathryn M Ross, Chelsea A Carpenter, Kelsey M Arroyo, Meena N Shankar, Fan Yi, Peihua Qiu, Lisa Anthony, and Michael G Perri
Citation
Kathryn M Ross, Chelsea A Carpenter, Kelsey M Arroyo, Meena N Shankar, Fan Yi, Peihua Qiu, Lisa Anthony, Jaime Ruiz, and Michael G Perri. 2022. Impact of transition from face-to-face to telehealth on behavioral obesity treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Obesity 30, 4: 858–863
Bibtex
@article{https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.23383,
author = {Ross, Kathryn M. and Carpenter, Chelsea A. and Arroyo, Kelsey M. and Shankar, Meena N. and Yi, Fan and Qiu, Peihua and Anthony, Lisa and Ruiz, Jaime and Perri, Michael G.},
title = {Impact of transition from face-to-face to telehealth on behavioral obesity treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic},
journal = {Obesity},
volume = {30},
number = {4},
pages = {858-863},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.23383},
url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/oby.23383},
eprint = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/oby.23383},
abstract = {Abstract Objective This study evaluated whether the transition of a face-to-face behavioral intervention to videoconferencing-based telehealth delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significantly smaller weight losses than those typically observed in gold-standard, face-to-face programs. Methods Participants were 160 adults with obesity (mean [SD] age = 49.2 [11.9] years, BMI = 36.1 [4.2] kg/m2) enrolled in two cohorts of a 16-week comprehensive weight-management program. Cohort 1 began in person and transitioned to telehealth (Zoom) delivery during week 11 of the intervention because of COVID-19; Cohort 2 was conducted completely remotely. A noninferiority approach (using a clinically relevant noninferiority margin of 2.5\%) was used to assess whether the weight losses observed were inferior to the 8\% losses from baseline typically produced by gold-standard, face-to-face lifestyle interventions. Results From baseline to postintervention, participants lost an average of 7.4 [4.9] kg, representing a reduction of 7.2\% [4.6\%]. This magnitude of weight change was significantly greater than 5.5\% (t[159] = 4.7, p < 0.001), and, thus, was within the proposed noninferiority margin. Conclusions These findings demonstrate that the results of behavioral weight-management interventions are robust, whether delivered in person or remotely, and that individuals can achieve clinically meaningful benefits from behavioral treatment even during a global pandemic. Pragmatic “lessons learned,” including modified trial recruitment techniques, are discussed.},
year = {2022}
}