Sustaining the reach of a scalable weight loss intervention through financial incentives- a pragmatic, feasibility, online randomized trial protocol.

Background: High attrition following initial enrollment in evidence-based weight loss programs is a common, challenging, and under-studied issue. A behavioral economics approach consisting of modest monetary incentives may help to engage participants beyond enrollment to close the initial attrition gap.

Purpose: To describe the methods and design of a pragmatic, online randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an incentivized, technology-facilitated weight loss program through an innovative research-practice partnership involving primary care, health promotion researchers, and a small business.

Cost effectiveness and return on investment of a scalable community weight loss intervention.

This study assessed the lifetime health and economic consequences of an efficacious scalable community weight loss program for overweight and obese adults. We applied a state-transition Markov model to project lifetime economic outcome (US dollar) and the degree of disease averted as a result of a weight loss intervention, compared with no intervention, from a payer perspective. Effect sizes of the intervention on weight loss, by sex, race and ethnicity, and body mass index (BMI) of participants, were derived from a 12-month community program.

A Quasi-Experiment to Assess the Impact of a Scalable, Community-Based Weight Loss Program: Combining Reach, Effectiveness, and Cost.

Background: Primary care addresses obesity through physician oversight of intensive lifestyle interventions or referral to external programs with demonstrated efficacy. However, limited information exists on community program reach, effectiveness, and costs across different groups of participants.

Objective: To evaluate a scalable, community weight loss program using reach, effectiveness, and cost metrics.