Shared Medical Appointments in Weight Management: A Culturally Responsive Process for Aboriginal Women. Translational Trial Results

Abstract

Introduction: This paper presents a secondary analysis of data from a study of 216 people participating in a trial of program shared medical appointments (PSMA) in weight management. The focus of this paper is the Aboriginal women who participated in this translational research project and who were not reported on specifically in the primary analysis and publication. This paper, therefore, examines the use of PSMA as a culturally safe and responsive procedure to facilitate weight management. Method: Twogroups, totalling 25 Aboriginal women, participated in a 6-session 12-week culturally responsive weight management PSMA. Repeated weight and satisfaction measures at 3, 6 and 12 months were collected. Results: 19 of 25 (76%) Aboriginal women completed the MYU. 16 (84%) lost some weight, and 5 (26%) lost clinically significant weight (> 5%), sustained for 1 year. The participants and providers rated the procedure > 4 on 5-point Likert scales for satisfaction. 95% reported that they preferred MYUs for weight management over 1:1 consultations with their general practitioner. Conclusion: The data indicates that programmed shared medical appointments appear to be a culturally safe and responsive procedure to support the Aboriginal women, in this study, to manage their weight.