Effectiveness of a brief physician intervention

Greenhill, Claire

doi:10.1038/nrendo.2016.189

In Brief
Published: 11 November 2016

Obesity

Effectiveness of a brief physician intervention

Claire Greenhill

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 13, page 5 (2017)Cite this article

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Although many guidelines recommend that physicians give their patients brief advice about weight loss, many do not. A new randomized trial conducted in the UK has found that a brief intervention from a physician can help patients with obesity to lose weight. The trial included 1,882 patients with obesity who were randomly assigned to either receive advice to enrol in a weight management group (the support group) or to receive advice that weight loss would be beneficial for their health (the advice group). After 12 months, patients in both groups had lost weight, with those in the support group losing more than those in the advice group (mean 2.43 kg versus 1.04 kg). Patients were also asked their thoughts about the intervention. Only four patients felt that the intervention was inappropriate and unhelpful; 1,530 patients said that the intervention was appropriate and helpful. The investigators conclude that a brief opportunistic intervention from a physician is acceptable to patients and could be an effective way of helping patients with obesity to lose weight.

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References

Aveyard, P. et al. Screening and brief intervention for obesity in primary care: a parallel, two-arm, randomised trial. Lancet http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31893-1 (2016)

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