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Obesity

Counseling emPOWERs patients to lose weight

Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 9, page 4 (2012)Cite this article

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Two randomized, controlled trials presented at the 2011 AHA Scientific Sessions and published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicate that the most-effective weight-loss programs involve high levels of counseling and patient support. These studies are two of three independent Practice-based Opportunities for Weight Reduction (POWER) trials.

Dr. Tom Wadden became interested when “in 2003, the US Preventive Services Task Force recommended that clinicians screen all adults for obesity and offer intensive behavioral weight-loss counseling to appropriate individuals.” He and other researchers in a trial based at the University of Pennsylvania (POWER-UP) compared three interventions: usual care (quarterly visits to primary care providers that included education about weight management), brief lifestyle counseling (quarterly visits to primary care providers combined with brief monthly instructions about behavioral weight control from a lifestyle coach), or enhanced brief lifestyle counseling (the same care as above plus meal replacements or weight-loss medication—either orlistat or sibutramine).

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Wadden, T. A. et al. A two-year randomized trial of obesity treatment in primary care practice. N. Engl. J. Med. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1109220

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Appel, L. J. et al. Comparative effectiveness of weight-loss interventions in clinical practice. N. Engl. J. Med. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1108660

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

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Authors
  1. Gregory B. Lim
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Lim, G. Counseling emPOWERs patients to lose weight. Nat Rev Cardiol 9, 4 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2011.186

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