Telehealth-Based Health Coaching Produces Significant Weight Loss over 12 Months in a Usual Care Setting

Abstract

Background: Telehealth-based health coaching in a usual care setting has yet to be examined. The purpose of this study was to incorporate the inHealth Lifestyle Therapeutics, Inc.’s Telehealth Enabled Approach to Multidisciplinary Care (TEAM) method within a real-world routine clinical care setting to reduce body weight in obese participants. Materials and Methods: n = 70 participants were recruited for this intervention (Age: 58.1 ± 14.6yrs, BMI: 35.5 ± 7.8 kg/m2, 32 males and 38 females). All participants self-selected participation in either the virtual health coaching (VHC) group or usual care (UC) group. VHC participants met with a medical doctor monthly and a certified health coach weekly for the first 12 weeks of the study, bi-weekly for the following 12 weeks, and monthly for the remaining 6 months. Data were analyzed using a two-sample student’s t-test to assess any changes from baseline for both VHC and UC groups. Results: A significant difference for weight-loss between VHC and UC groups (8.24 ± 9.8 vs. 0.16 ± 10.6 kg, respectively, p < 0.05) was observed. In addition, there was a significant change in the mean percentage of body weight loss (6.5 ± 0.1% vs. 0.53 ± 1.45%, respectively, p < 0.05) between groups. Conclusions: Incorporating innovative deliveries that are scalable, such as telehealth-based interventions, may help stem the tide of patient obesity related care. Furthermore, using a TEAM method in a usual care setting may be effective for inducing sustained weight loss at 12 months.