Impact of a Community-Based Weight Management Program in a North Carolina Health Care System.

Abstract

Current strategies for obesity management in primary care leave many patients inadequately treated or unable to access treatment entirely. We aimed to evaluate a comprehensive, primary care clinic-based weight management program's clinical effectiveness in a community practice setting. Methods: This was an18-month pre/postintervention study. We collected demographic and anthropometric data on patients enrolled in a primary care-based weight management program.The primary outcomes were percent weight loss postintervention and the proportion of patients who achieved a clinically significant total body weight loss (TBWL) of 5% or greater. Results: Our program served 550 patients over 1,952 visits from March 2019 through October 2020.A total of 209 patients had adequate program exposure, defined as four or more completed visits. Among these, all received targeted lifestyle counseling and 78% received antiobesitymedication.Patients who attended at least four visits had an average TBWL of 5.7% compared to an average gain of 1.5% total body weight for those with only one visit. Fifty-three percent of patients (n=111)achieved greater than 5% TBWL, and 20%(n=43)achieved greater than 10% TBWL. We demonstrated that a community-based weight management program delivered by obesity medicine-trained primary care providers effectively produces clinically significant weight loss. Future work will include wider implementation of this model to increase patient access to evidence-based obesity treatments in their communities.