Team members influence retention in a First Peoples' community-based weight-loss program

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Behavior
• Indigenous Health

Background:

• Weight-loss and healthy lifestyle programs are crucial for chronic disease prevention.
• Engaging First Peoples in preventive health requires culturally appropriate and effective strategies.
• Understanding retention factors is key to improving program success and long-term health outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify factors influencing program retention in a repeated team-based weight-loss program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
• To examine the impact of social and individual factors on participation and completion rates.
• To inform the design of community-driven preventive health programs for Indigenous communities.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from 3107 participants across 10 Aboriginal Knockout Health Challenge contests.
• Bivariate and multivariate analyses comparing completers and non-completers based on demographics, behaviors, and weight.
• Examination of retention factors for first-time and repeat participants.

Main Results:

• First-time completers were more likely to be female, older, weigh less, and have more completing teammates.
• The number of completing teammates was the most significant factor for both first-time and second-time participants.
• Each additional completing teammate increased a participant's odds of completion by approximately 1.16-1.18.

Conclusions:

• Social support and team cohesion are critical for retaining First Peoples in weight-loss and healthy lifestyle programs.
• Community-driven design and group-based approaches enhance engagement and sustainability in preventive health initiatives.
• Understanding evolving retention factors across successive program attempts improves generalizable knowledge of weight-loss program effectiveness.