Comparative effectiveness of three doses of weight-loss counseling: two-year findings from the rural LITE trial. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects and costs of three doses of behavioral weight-loss treatment delivered via Cooperative Extension Offices in rural communities. METHODS: Obese adults (N=612) were randomly assigned to low, moderate, or high doses of behavioral treatment (i.e., 16, 32, or 48 sessions over two years) or to a control condition that received nutrition education without instruction in behavior modification strategies. RESULTS: Two-year mean reductions in initial body weight were 2.9% (95% Credible Interval=1.7-4.3), 3.5% (2.0-4.8), 6.7% (5.3-7.9), and 6.8% (5.5-8.1) for the control, low-, moderate-, and high-dose conditions, respectively. The moderate-dose treatment produced weight losses similar to the high-dose condition and significantly larger than the low-dose and control conditions (posterior probability>0.996). The percentages of participants who achieved weight reductions 5% at two years were significantly higher in the moderate-dose (58%) and high-dose (58%) conditions compared with low-dose (43%) and control (40%) conditions (posterior probability>0.996). Cost-effectiveness analyses favored the moderate-dose treatment over all other conditions. CONCLUSIONS: A moderate dose of behavioral treatment produced two-year weight reductions comparable to high-dose treatment but at a lower cost. These findings have important policy implications for the dissemination of weight-loss interventions into communities with limited resources.

published proceedings

  • Obesity (Silver Spring)

altmetric score

  • 18.25

author list (cited authors)

  • Perri, M. G., Limacher, M. C., von Castel-Roberts, K., Daniels, M. J., Durning, P. E., Janicke, D. M., ... Martin, A. D.

citation count

  • 42

complete list of authors

  • Perri, Michael G||Limacher, Marian C||von Castel-Roberts, Kristina||Daniels, Michael J||Durning, Patricia E||Janicke, David M||Bobroff, Linda B||Radcliff, Tiffany A||Milsom, Vanessa A||Kim, Chanmin||Martin, A Daniel

publication date

  • November 2014

publisher