Superiority of Lifestyle Intervention for Weight Loss in a Group Setting
The CDC’s
National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP)
uses group sessions to deliver the prevention
program. The primary goal of the group sessions is
weight loss. The desired outcome is delaying or
preventing diabetes. The National DPP is based on
the diabetes prevention study in which the coaches
met one-on-one with each study participant. The
results were that intensive lifestyle intervention,
focusing on weight loss, lowered the risk of
diabetes by 58%.
However, researchers felt that the program was not
sustainable, because the cost to deliver the program
was too high. So, the program was modified so that
it could be delivered in a group setting, which is
how the current National DPP is delivered. But some
may still question the group delivery approach.
The original Diabetes Prevention Program study ended
in 2001. And for several years after the end of the
study, translational research was done to determine
if the original DPP study's one-on-one lifestyle
intervention could be effective in a group setting.
One of the translational
investigations was done by researchers at the
Indiana University School of Medicine.
The researchers concluded that using weight loss as
the goal in lifestyle intervention could indeed be
effective in a group setting. Participants in the
lifestyle intervention group lost 6% of their weight
compared to 2% for the participants in the control
group.
And a more recent study has, again, demonstrated the
effectiveness of lifestyle intervention in a group
setting. In fact, the researchers suggested that
group lifestyle intervention is actually superior to
one-on-one delivery for weight loss. According to
the researchers, “Group multi-component lifestyle
interventions are superior for weight loss
compared to one-to-one interventions with respect to
adult weight management.”
So, providers should consider group settings for
weight loss and weight maintenance. The providers
should also consider group settings for other
chronic disease treatments. The actions could
increase patient health.
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