Study: Physician Referral to Weight Watchers Reduces Obesity

A simple intervention can make a big difference in obesity, according to a new study. Obesity is a serious health problem in the United States.

A simple intervention can make a big difference in obesity, according to a new study. Obesity is a serious health problem in the United States.

Researchers found that when doctors referred obese patients to Weight Watchers, those patients lost about twice as much weight as a control group not referred to the company.

According to a study published in the medical journal The Lancet, participants were recruited by primary care practices in Britain, Germany, and Australia. A research team led by Dr. Susan Jebb, head of diet and population health at the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research Unit in Cambridge, examined weight loss among 772 people who either attended Weight Watchers or received standard treatment over a period of one year.

Participants in the Weight Watchers program lost an average of more than twice as much weight than those in the standard care group.

Participants were more than three times as likely to lose 10 percent or more of their initial weight. At the end of the program, 61 percent of patients in the Weight Watchers group lost at least 5 percent of their body weight, versus 32 percent of people in the standard care group.

Weight Watchers, a popular weight-loss program that provides a structured eating plan and weekly support meetings, has been around since 1963.

According to Jebb, trials like these are vital to identify effective interventions to fight obesity and provide the evidence professionals need to make policy decisions.

“The similar weight losses achieved in Australia, Germany, and the UK implies that this commercial program, in partnership with primary care providers, is a robust intervention which is likely to be generalizable to other economically developed countries with a Western lifestyle,” stated Jebb in a press release.

This data provides evidence of how a brief intervention by the physician—including referral to Weight Watchers—can be successful on a large scale in helping those who are overweight achieve medically significant health benefits from losing weight.

Obesity has become a serious national health problem, causing economic loss, and is a major contributor to heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer. The World Health Organization has estimated that one billion people worldwide are overweight, and more than 300 million are obese.

According to the study in The Lancet, by 2030 approximately 65 million more adults will be considered obese in America, and 11 million more in Great Britain.

Among the health problems that excess weight contributes to or worsens are diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and various cancers.

According to an email from the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 34 percent of adults over age 20 and 17 percent of children and teens ages 2–19 are obese. The medical costs of obesity were estimated to be $147 billion in 2009.

Medical costs associated with excess weight are both direct and indirect. Direct costs include preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services and indirect costs involve morbidity and mortality costs.

Morbidity costs are defined as the value of income lost from decreased productivity, restricted activity, and absenteeism and bed days. Mortality costs are the value of future income lost by premature death, according to the CDC.