A pilot study evaluating the prefeasibility of a behavioral weight loss program in people with multiple sclerosis

Julia S Cozart1,2, Amanda S Bruce3,4, Christie Befort5

  • 1University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics, 2411 Holmes St., Kansas City, MO, USA.

PubMed

Weight loss interventions seldom include individuals with neurologic disease. The aims of the present study were to: 1) develop and assess the prefeasibility of a 6-month telehealth behavioral weight loss program for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and obesity and 2) examine changes in weight loss (primary outcome), physical activity, and fruit/vegetable consumption at follow-up. Participants with obesity and MS engaged in a 24-week weight loss program. Participants followed established diet, exercise, and self-monitoring guidelines and attended weekly online group meetings. Median percentage weight loss was 10.54 % (SD = 7.19). Participants who adhered more closely to the self-monitoring guidelines (r = 0.81, p =.02), and who averaged higher weekly active minutes (r = 0.91, p =.002) achieved greater percentage weight loss. Six of the eight pilot participants achieved clinically meaningful weight loss (>5%) after 6-months.

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