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Abstract
Background Obesity is a risk factor for complications from SARS-CoV-2 infection, increasing the need for effective weight management measures in primary care. However, in the UK, COVID-19 restrictions have hampered primary care weight management referral and delivery, and COVID-19 related weight gain has been reported. The present study evaluated outcomes from a multicomponent weight loss and health promotion programme in UK primary care, delivered remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Method Patients with obesity, type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes attended six 90 min sessions over 10 weeks on Zoom. The dietary component comprised a low-carbohydrate ‘real food’ approach, augmented with education on physical activity, intermittent fasting, gut health, stress management, sleep and behaviour change. Anthropometric and cardiometabolic data were self-reported. Mental well-being was assessed with the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. Subjective outcomes and participant feedback about the programme were collected with an anonymous online survey.
Results Twenty participants completed the programme. Weight loss and improvements in body mass index, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and mental well-being achieved statistical and clinical significance. Mean weight loss (5.8 kg) represented a 6.5% weight loss. Participants’ subjective outcomes included weight loss without hunger (67%) and increased confidence in their ability to improve health (83%). All participants reported the usage of Zoom to access the programme as acceptable with 83% reporting it worked well.
Conclusion A multicomponent weight loss and health promotion programme with a low-carbohydrate dietary component, clinically and statistically significantly improved health outcomes including weight status, blood pressure and mental well-being in a group of primary care patients when delivered remotely. Further research is warranted.
- weight management
- blood pressure lowering
- dietary patterns
- mental health
- metabolic syndrome
Data availability statement
Data are available on reasonable request. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information. For raw data or any other queries, please contact the corresponding author, LW: lou@louwalker.com.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
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Data availability statement
Data are available on reasonable request. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information. For raw data or any other queries, please contact the corresponding author, LW: lou@louwalker.com.
Footnotes
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Contributors LW conceived and designed the programme, led the programme roll-out, collected the data and drafted the manuscript. NS contributed to the programme design, facilitated patient access and recruitment and edited early drafts of the manuscript. CD analysed and interpreted the data, produced the figures and edited final versions of the manuscript.
Funding All the work relating to the programme was performed by volunteers from the charity the Public Health Collaboration (registered number: 1171887).
Competing interests LW and CD are volunteer ambassadors for the Public Health Collaboration charity (registration number 1171887).
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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