An adaptive behavioral intervention for weight loss management

JAMA

2024-05-15

(Press-News.org) About The Study: A wireless feedback system (Wi-Fi activity tracker and scale with smartphone app to provide daily feedback) was not noninferior to the same system with added coaching. Continued efforts are needed to identify strategies for weight loss management and to accurately select interventions for different individuals to achieve weight loss goals.

Quote from corresponding author Bonnie Spring, Ph.D.:

“With U.S. obesity prevalence projected to reach 49% by 2030, limited obesity treatment resources need to be spread across more of the population. One promising approach is stepped care that begins with low cost, self-monitoring technology alone, then intensifies treatment for those who show insufficient response.

“It has been unknown whether first line technology treatment alone could produce clinically acceptable weight loss. In an adaptive randomized noninferiority trial, people who initially only received technology without coach support were less likely to achieve meaningful weight loss (5% of body weight), compared to those who had a human coach at the start.

“Currently, a human coach remains needed from the outset of obesity treatment because digital technology alone doesn’t produce clinically acceptable weight loss for most people.”

Contact information for Dr. Spring: email bspring@northwestern.edu.

(doi:10.1001/jama.2024.0821)

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

# # #

Media advisory: The study is being released to coincide with the European Congress on Obesity.

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2024.0821?guestAccessKey=6d6633c0-8d44-48b2-a3eb-e97abf6c9a3a&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=051424

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Tech can’t replace human coaches in obesity treatment

2024-05-15

· The need for low cost but effective obesity treatments has become urgent · ‘At this stage, treatment still needs a human because the tech alone doesn’t produce clinically acceptable weight loss for most people’ · Not previously known whether tech alone could produce clinically acceptable weight loss CHICAGO --- A new Northwestern Medicine study shows that technology alone can’t replace the human touch to produce meaningful weight loss in obesity treatment. “Giving people technology alone ...

Severe obesity in childhood can halve life expectancy, global modelling study finds

2024-05-15

Impact of age of onset, severity and duration of childhood obesity quantified for the first time Early onset obesity model finds that a child who is living with severe obesity at age 4 and doesn’t lose weight has a life expectancy of just 39. But weight loss can give back decades of life Childhood obesity is a life-threatening disease, say researchers New research being presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Venice, Italy (12-15 May) has, for the first time, quantified the impact of different aspects of childhood obesity on long-term health and life expectancy. The modelling by stradoo GmbH, a life sciences consultancy ...

Study supports lower BMI threshold for obesity in the over 40s

2024-05-15

Changes in body composition with ageing—increases in body fat and declines in muscle—mean that BMI is not accurate in predicting obesity in middle-aged and older adults. BMI identified half as many over 40s with obesity as predicted by body fat percentage. A new lower BMI cut-off for obesity based on body fat percentage (27kg/m²) in the over 40s may be more appropriate than the existing WHO BMI threshold (30 kg/m²). The authors say establishing this new lower BMI cut-off point for the over 40s in clinical settings and obesity guidelines potentially ...

Text messages with financial incentives can help men who are living with obesity lose weight, UK study finds (JAMA)

2024-05-15

Men in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland offered up to £400 for hitting weight loss targets lost more weight than those not given cash incentive Win-win strategy could pay for itself, say researchers *Note: this paper is being presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) and is being published in JAMA. Please credit both the congress and the journal in your stories.* A new study presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Venice, Italy (12-15 May), and published simultaneously in JAMA, has concluded that text messages with financial incentives can help men who are living with obesity lose weight and could be a valuable alternative ...

Scientists develop an affordable sensor for lead contamination

2024-05-14

Engineers at MIT, Nanytang Technological University, and several companies have developed a compact and inexpensive technology for detecting and measuring lead concentrations in water, potentially enabling a significant advance in tackling this persistent global health issue. The World Health Organization estimates that 240 million people worldwide are exposed to drinking water that contains unsafe amounts of toxic lead, which can affect brain development in children, cause birth defects, and produce a variety of neurological, cardiac, ...

UC Irvine-led study links sleep apnea severity during REM stage to verbal memory decline

2024-05-14

Irvine, Calif., May 14, 2024 — A research team led by the University of California, Irvine has revealed the link between the frequency of sleep apnea events during the rapid-eye-movement stage and the severity of verbal memory impairment in older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Verbal memory refers to the cognitive ability to retain and recall information presented through spoken words or written text and is particularly vulnerable to Alzheimer’s. The study, recently published online in the journal Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, discovered a specific correlation between the severity of sleep apnea – when breathing pauses while ...

What’s actually in your supplements? Chapman University researchers detect hidden ingredients and questionable claims in supplements

2024-05-14

A recent study published in Analytical Science Journal conducted by Schmid College of Science and Technology Professor Rosalee Hellberg and students Calin Harris, Diane Kim, Miranda Miranda and Chevon Jordan, reveal that some supplement companies may mislead customers with unproven health claims and undeclared ingredients. The researchers focused on supplements that have been associated with the purported treatment or prevention of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses. During the pandemic, the use of dietary supplements skyrocketed throughout the world. “There was a big spike in purchase and use of these types ...

STRIVE project to study ozone, atmospheric layers among finalists for next-generation NASA satellite

2024-05-14

A project led by the University of Washington to better understand our atmosphere’s complexity is a finalist for NASA’s next generation of Earth-observing satellites. The space agency this week announced the projects that will each receive $5 million to advance to the next stage and conduct a one-year concept study. STRIVE seeks to better understand the troposphere that we inhabit and the stratosphere above it, where the ozone layer is, as well as the interface where these two layers meet. That interface, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) above the surface, is where important ...

Simulating diffusion using 'kinosons' and machine learning

2024-05-14

Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have recast diffusion in multicomponent alloys as a sum of individual contributions, called “kinosons.” Using machine learning to compute the statistical distribution of the individual contributions, they were able to model the alloy and calculate its diffusivity orders of magnitude more efficiently than computing whole trajectories. This work was recently published in the journal Physical Review Letters. “We found a much more efficient way to calculate diffusion in solids, and at the same time, we learned more ...

Far from toxic, lactate rivals glucose as body's major fuel after a carbohydrate meal

2024-05-14

As a student competing in track and field at his Parlier high school, Robert Leija was obsessed with how to improve his performance and, in particular, prevent the buildup of lactic acid in his muscles during training. Like many athletes, he blamed it for the performance fatigue and muscle soreness he experienced after intense workouts. But as a kinesiology student at Fresno State, he was handed an out-of-print textbook that told him he had it all wrong. Lactate wasn't a danger sign that athletes had depleted their body's supply of oxygen, but likely a normal product of the metabolic activity required to fuel the muscles during sustained exercise. Now, as a graduate student ...

A CRISPR screen reveals many previously unrecognized genes required for brain development and a new neurodevelopmental disorder

Why Some Bacteria Survive Antibiotics and How to Stop Them - New study reveals that bacteria can survive antibiotic treatment through two fundamentally different “shutdown modes”

An adaptive behavioral intervention for weight loss management

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: