Abstract
The objective of this report was to assess the results of a weight-loss programme managed by pharmacists since obesity and type-2 diabetes are serious problems in the UK. We evaluated the service provided by pharmacists in the UK to manage and continuously monitor a very low energy diet (VLED) program based on Lipotrim® for overweight and obese people who wished to lose weight. Between 2008 to 2013, 57 (~3%) of 2000+ pharmacies offering the service elected to utilise online tracker software instead of paper records. Extrapolation of the subject numbers from this subset to the full population presenting to participating pharmacies for weight management yields an estimate of more than 300,000 people. 8724 overweight people voluntarily enquired about the weight loss program at the 57 pharmacies. Approximately 50% of these people completed at least two full weeks and their information was analysed in this report. Of the 50% who completed two weeks, 30% (1077 women, 241 men), displayed a period of linear decline in weight and at a mean duration of ~60 days, mean weight loss in women was 12 kg (-12.6% initial weight) and in men was 16.5 kg (-13.8%). The remaining 70% (2487 women, 540 men) lost 8.0 and 11.5 kg over 104 and 122 days respectively. In conclusion, weight losses in those people who persisted in the program will have a public health benefit and potentially reduce their risk of co-morbidities such as diabetes. Pharmacists in the UK are ideally placed to provide and monitor weight loss programs for overweight people.
Highlights
The objective of this report was to assess the results of a weight-loss programme managed by pharmacists since obesity and type-2 diabetes are serious problems in the UK
Obesity is closely associated with diabetes, high blood pressure, joint pain and deterioration, stroke, some cancers and heart disease [1,2] and the problems are of increasing concern in developed [3,4] and Values greater than 25 are associated with a greater risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer and persons with Body Mass Index (BMI) >40 have substantially increased rates of mortality [3]
Hospital studies have shown that successful weight loss can be achieved using structured weight loss programmes using very low energy diets (VLED) [9] and that long term weight-loss maintenance is significantly greater than that following successful hypo-energetic diets in both men and women at 4 to 5 years of follow-up [10]
Summary
The objective of this report was to assess the results of a weight-loss programme managed by pharmacists since obesity and type-2 diabetes are serious problems in the UK. We evaluated the service provided by pharmacists in the UK to manage and continuously monitor a very low energy diet (VLED) program based on Lipotrim® for overweight and obese people who wished to lose weight. Hospital studies have shown that successful weight loss can be achieved using structured weight loss programmes using very low energy diets (VLED) [9] and that long term weight-loss maintenance is significantly greater than that following successful hypo-energetic diets in both men and women at 4 to 5 years of follow-up [10]. In this paper we describe an evaluation of a service provided by English pharmacists in assisting overweight and obese people to lose weight using structured weight-loss programme based on a product known as Lipotrim®. We show that successful weight loss by both groups was achieved
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