Abstracts / Posters
Deprivation and early drop out from Counterweight weight management model
Obesity Reviews. 2004 Vol 5 Issue S1 34
The Counterweight Project Team
Aim: To ascertain if deprivation influenced patient drop-out from a UK primary care weight management intervention programme.
Methods: Eighty primary care practices from 7 areas of the UK were recruited into the Counterweight programme. The primary care practices come from areas with a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. Each practice was allocated the Carstairs deprivation score according to their postcode. The scores were categorised as 1=low deprivation, 2=moderate deprivation, 3=high deprivation. The number of patients attending less than 2 appointments was calculated for each practice and compared to the deprivation category.
Results: There was an early drop-out rate of approximately one-quarter across all deprivation categories. In categories 1, 2 and 3 the drop-out rates were 22.5% (116/515), 25.2% (124/493) and 27.4% (167/610) respectively. (Chi-squared test for trend, p = 0.06.)
Conclusions: The Counterweight weight management intervention model is equally acceptable to affluent and deprived areas (as far as early drop-out is concerned).