Abstracts / Posters
Factors Affecting Completion Rates and Weight Loss in Primary Care in the UK: The Counterweight Programme
Obesity Reviews. 2005 6 (supp 1) p142
The Counterweight Project Team
Aims: To determine factors affecting completion rates and weight change outcomes in patients attending a primary care weight management programme.
Methods: The Counterweight Project is a national multi-centre initiative aimed at improving obesity management in primary care. Practice nurses were trained and supported by specialist dietitians to deliver a structured evidence-based approach to weight management in 54 practices located in 7 regions of the UK. The effect of age, sex, baseline body mass index (BMI), co-morbidities, smoking status, practice social deprivation category or region on completion rate (n = 1393) and weight loss was examined in patients with 6 month data (n=491). Significant differences were confirmed using available 12 month data (n= 446).
Results: A greater proportion of older individuals (p<0.001), those whose GP practice was in an affluent area (p= 0.006) and those with a higher baseline BMI (p=0.035) completed the programme. The proportion of completers achieving >=5% weight loss was only affected by the presence of diabetes. Thirty per cent of people with diabetes lost >=5% initial body weight compared to 46% of those without diabetes (p= 0.024). All individuals with higher baseline BMI had a greater mean weight loss: 5.7kg for BMI>=40 (n=131) vs 3.0kg for BMI <35 (n=213) (p<0.001). These differences were confirmed using 12 month data (p<0.001). There was no effect of age, sex, number of co-morbidities, smoking status, practice deprivation or region on weight loss.
Conclusions: Factors affecting completion rates such as age and social deprivation need to be considered when developing future weight management programmes. The importance of early intervention to prevent or delay the onset of diabetes is highlighted by poorer weight loss outcomes in patients who have developed diabetes.