Laura Dennison|Leanne Morrison|Scott Lloyd|Dawn Phillips|Beth Stuart|Sarah Williams|Katherine Bradbury|Paul Roderick|Elizabeth Murray|Susan Michie|Paul Little|Lucy Yardley
Does Brief Telephone Support Improve Engagement With a Web-Based Weight Management Intervention? Randomized Controlled Trial
University of Southampton|University of Southampton|Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council|Durham County Council|University of Southampton|Bournemouth University|University of Southampton|University of Southampton|University College London|University College London|University of Southampton|University of Southampton
recent reviews suggest webbased interventions promising approaches weight management identify difficulties suboptimal usage literature suggests offering degree human support website users may boost usage outcomeswe disseminated power positive online weight reduction webbased weight management intervention community setting power consisted weekly online sessions emphasized selfmonitoring goalsetting cognitivebehavioral strategies primary outcome intervention usage investigated whether enhanced addition brief telephone coaching also explored group differences shortterm selfreported weight lossparticipants recruited using range methods including targeted mailouts advertisements local press notices organizational websites social media total 786 adults randomized individual level online procedure 1 power n264 2 power plus coaching n247 3 waiting list control group n275 power plus coaching arm contacted approximately 7 28 days randomization short coaching telephone calls aimed promoting continued usage website website usage tracked automatically weight assessed online selfreportof 511 participants allocated two intervention groups median number power sessions completed one iqr 02 power iqr 03 power plus coach nonetheless substantial minority completed least core three sessions power 47 participants 178 47264 poweronly arm 64 participants 259 64247 power plus coaching arm participants power plus coaching group persisted intervention longer 161 times likely complete core three sessions poweronly group 2 1493 161 95 ci 106247 n511 intentiontotreat analysis showed betweengroup differences weight loss f278212421 p001 intervention groups reported weight loss waiting list control group weight loss slightly significantly greater power plus coaching group large proportion participants assigned power plus coaching refused phone calls contactable 579 143247 exploratory analyses identified health sociodemographic differences engage coaching made available users engaged coaching used intervention lost weight notin common webbased intervention studies usage power suboptimal overall however findings suggest supplementing webbased weight management brief human support could improve usage outcomes take upinternational standard randomized controlled trial number isrctn 98176068 httpwwwcontrolledtrialscomisrctn98176068 archived webcite httpwwwwebcitationorg6okrjm2oy