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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