Internet Assisted Obesity Treatment - Full Text View

Purpose

High quality behavioral weight loss programs are not widely accessible. The Internet offers one way to deliver health behavior programs to a wider audience. However, effective weight loss treatments are intensive and program delivery over the Internet may not be capable of duplicating the level of engagement typically generated during traditional in-person treatment. The goal of this study is to test the effectiveness of three weight loss interventions: Internet alone, Internet+periodic in-person support, and in-person alone. The investigators hypothesize that the in-person and internet+in-person interventions will produce better weight loss and maintenance than the internet only group.

Condition	Intervention	Phase
Overweight Obesity	Behavioral: internet, in-person and internet+in-person	Phase 3

Study Type:	Interventional
Study Design:	Allocation: Randomized Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment Masking: Open Label Primary Purpose: Treatment
Official Title:	A Randomized Trial of an Internet Versus In-person Behavioral Weight Loss Treatment Program.

Resource links provided by NLM:

MedlinePlus related topics: Obesity Weight Control

U.S. FDA Resources

Further study details as provided by University of Vermont:

Primary Outcome Measures:

Body Mass Index or body weight change [ Time Frame: 0, 6, 12, 18 month time points ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Secondary Outcome Measures:

Social support, diet, exercise, adherence to treatment components [ Time Frame: 0, 6, 12, 18 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Estimated Enrollment:	488
Study Start Date:	February 2006
Study Completion Date:	October 2009
Primary Completion Date:	October 2009 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)

Arms	Assigned Interventions
Experimental: 1 Individuals in this arm receive a 6 month behavioral weight loss intervention delivered on-line. Groups meet via a web chat weekly for 24 weeks and monthly for the following 12 months.	Behavioral: internet, in-person and internet+in-person All participants receive an 18 month behavioral weight loss program that meets weekly for the first 6 months and monthly for the next year.
Experimental: 2 In-person; Individuals in the in-person condition attend weekly group behavioral weight loss sessions for 24 weeks and then monthly sessions for the following 12 months.	Behavioral: internet, in-person and internet+in-person All participants receive an 18 month behavioral weight loss program that meets weekly for the first 6 months and monthly for the next year.
Experimental: 3 In-person+internet; Individuals in this condition receive a behavioral weight loss intervention over the internet weekly for 24 weeks and monthly for the following 12 months. Every month during the first 24 weeks and every third month during the following year they have an in-person meeting.	Behavioral: internet, in-person and internet+in-person All participants receive an 18 month behavioral weight loss program that meets weekly for the first 6 months and monthly for the next year.

Detailed Description:

Currently 65% of the adult population is overweight or obese. Unfortunately, safe and effective treatments for obesity are costly and intensive; therefore, this level of support is unlikely to be feasible in most clinical settings. Moreover, an additional limitation to current obesity treatment approaches is the limited reach and availability of programs for persons who work, live in rural areas or do not want, or cannot afford participation in group support classes. The advent of telecommunications technology may provide a solution to this dilemma. Telecommunications technology can presumably improve access to services and improve efficiency of delivery. Moreover, research examining new technologies such as the Internet, will provide information for policy makers interested in disseminating low-cost, high reach effective obesity treatment interventions. However, the effectiveness of the Internet for inducing weight loss has not been rigorously tested. Therefore, the overall goal of this project is to determine if obesity treatment can be effectively delivered over the Internet. A secondary aim is to evaluate whether the effectiveness of Internet interventions can be improved with the addition of minimal in-person support. Specifically, this project is a randomized, controlled clinical trial designed to test the translation of a behavioral weight loss program to the Internet (I). The I intervention will be compared to both an in-person condition (IP) and an Internet condition supplemented with periodic in-person support (I+IP). Subjects will be 488 (30% minority) overweight and obese adults recruited from Vermont and Arkansas who will participate in a 6-month behavioral weight control treatment program followed by 12 months of weight maintenance. Assessments will include measures of body weight, adherence to treatment goals, social influence components and frequency of use of Internet website features.

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:	18 Years and older
Genders Eligible for Study:	Both
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:	Yes

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

>18 years old
BMI>25
Internet access

Exclusion Criteria:

pregnancy
major medical problems
inability to walk for exercise

Contacts and Locations

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00265954

Locations

United States, Arkansas
University of Arkansas for the Medical Sciences
Little Rock, Arkansas, United States, 72205
United States, Vermont
University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont, United States, 05405

Sponsors and Collaborators

University of Vermont

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

University of Arkansas

Investigators

Principal Investigator:

Jean Harvey-Berino, PhD

University of Vermont

More Information

No publications provided by University of Vermont

Additional publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):

Harvey-Berino J, Krukowski RA, Buzzell P, Ogden D, Skelly J, West DS. The accuracy of weight reported in a web-based obesity treatment program. Telemed J E Health. 2011 Nov;17(9):696-9. Epub 2011 Sep 1.

Responsible Party:	Jean Harvey-Berino, PhD, RD; Professor, Chair, University of Vermont
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00265954 History of Changes
Other Study ID Numbers:	DK56746, R01DK056746
Study First Received:	December 14, 2005
Last Updated:	January 21, 2010
Health Authority:	United States: Federal Government

Additional relevant MeSH terms:

Obesity
Overweight
Overnutrition

Nutrition Disorders
Body Weight
Signs and Symptoms

ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on May 19, 2013

Internet Assisted Obesity Treatment (iReach)