Using telehealth to increase participation in weight maintenance programs

To compare weight regain, satisfaction, and convenience among three weight maintenance programs: telehealth, traditional classes, and no program.

This quasi-experimental study compared weight change, satisfaction, and convenience among three program types. The telehealth participants interacted with a registered dietitian (RD) through the web and e-mail, traditional program participants attended a traditional classroom program, and no program participants received no interaction. Eighty-seven subjects (14 men and 73 women) were enrolled in the study: 31 traditional, 31 telehealth, and 25 no program participants. Eligibility included participation in a community-based weight loss program (Colorado Weigh) and minimum 7% weight loss before enrollment.

Subject characteristics at baseline were as follows: age, 50 +/- 9.3 (standard deviation) years; height, 1.68 +/- 0.09 m; weight, 80.5 +/- 18.4 kg, with no significant differences between groups. Over 6 months, the traditional group lost 0.5 +/- 4.3 kg, the telehealth group lost 0.6 +/- 2.5 kg, and the no program group gained 1.7 +/- 3.0 kg. Weight change among all three groups was significant (p = 0.02); no program participants gained significantly more weight than the telehealth and traditional groups. There were no differences in overall satisfaction between the telehealth and traditional groups (p = 0.43), but individuals in the telehealth group rated their program as more convenient compared with the traditional group (p = 0.0001).

These results show the usefulness of telehealth programs in long-term weight loss maintenance. They may be a useful alternative for those who successfully lose weight in a structured behavioral program but do not choose to participate in a formal behavioral weight loss maintenance program.