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Shared Medical Appointments: Promoting Weight Loss in a Clinical Setting JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF FAMILY MEDICINE Palaniappan, L. P., Muzaffar, A. L., Wang, E. J., Wong, E. C., Orchard, T. J. 2011; 24 (3): 326-328

Abstract

Shared medical appointments (SMAs) are 90-minute group appointments for patients with similar medical complaints. SMAs include components of a traditional office visit but provide further emphasis on health education. The effectiveness of SMAs on weight-loss in an outpatient setting has not been studied.Weight-loss SMAs were offered by one physician at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. Teaching content included Diabetes Prevention Program materials. This analysis includes patients who attended at least one SMA (n = 74) compared with patients in the same physician's practice who had at least one office visit and a body mass index = 25 kg/m(2) (n = 356).The SMA group had a higher proportion of women than the comparison group (76% vs 64%) and were older (mean, 52.4 years; SD, 13.1 years vs mean, 47.0 years; SD, 13.3 years). SMA patients on average lost 1.0% of their baseline weight. Patients in the comparison group on average gained 0.8% of their baseline weight.SMAs may be a viable option for physicians to promote weight loss in the clinical setting.

View details for DOI 10.3122/jabfm.2011.03.100220

View details for Web of Science ID 000290384100016

View details for PubMedID 21551406

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC3217311