Abstracts / Posters
A practice and patient orientated system of weight management in primary care, illustrating the effect of deprivation on outcomes
Accepted for oral presentation at Evidence, Policy, Practice. Public health research in Scotland 2004
The Counterweight Project Team
Aim: To measure the effectiveness of a UK primary care weight management programme and assess the influence of deprivation on programme outcomes.
Methods: The Counterweight programme is a national multi-centre project aimed at improving obesity management in primary care. Eighty practices from 7 regions of the UK representing low to high deprivation areas were recruited. Specialist obesity dietitians provided training and clinical support in implementing a structured approach to care. The equitability was analysed using the frequency of early drop out from the programme (less than 2 visits), by the deprivation category of the practice.
Results: At time of abstract submission 1256 patients have been recruited into this ongoing programme. 598, 385, 282 patients have so far attended for review appointments at 3,6 and 12 months respectively. The mean BMI was 37, 75% patients had at least one comorbidity. 15% were diabetic, 33% hypertensive, 14% dyslipidaemic and 9% had cardiovascular disease. 51% patients were classified as compliant, in that they attended the required number of appointments in 3,6 and 12 months. The mean weight change for compliers (n=194) at 12 months was -4.7Kg compared to no weight change for non compliers (n=88). 43% of compliers achieved a weight loss >=5% at 12 months compared to only 16% of non compliers (p<0.001). In Scotland patients in high deprivation practices had higher rates of early drop out compared to low deprivation practices (p=0.005), however these results were not significant when analysing the whole UK population (p=0.493).
Conclusions: The Counterweight programme has demonstrated that clinically effective weight reduction can be achieved in a primary care setting with about 50% completion rate. The effect of deprivation category on early drop out in the Scottish population needs to be explored further to enable the development of equitable weight management services.