Early outcomes of referrals to the English National Health Service Digital Weight Management Programme

Katharine Taylor; Tejal Indulkar; Bethany Thompson; Christine Pinkard; Emma Barron; Tom Frost; Priyantha Jayawardane; Neil Davies; Chirag Bakhai; Nita Gandhi Forouhi; Paul Aveyard; Susan Jebb; Jonathan Valabhji

doi:10.1002/oby.24024

Early outcomes of referrals to the English National Health Service Digital Weight Management Programme

Obesity (Silver Spring). 2024 Apr 21. doi: 10.1002/oby.24024. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Katharine Taylor¹, Tejal Indulkar¹, Bethany Thompson¹, Christine Pinkard¹, Emma Barron¹, Tom Frost¹, Priyantha Jayawardane², Neil Davies², Chirag Bakhai^{3

4}, Nita Gandhi Forouhi^{4

5}, Paul Aveyard^{4

6}, Susan Jebb^{4

6}, Jonathan Valabhji^{4

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Wellington House, NHS England, London, UK.
² Digital Innovation Unit, NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit, Stoke on Trent, UK.
³ General Practitioner and Primary Care Advisor to NHS Diabetes Programme, NHS England, London, UK.
⁴ Obesity Expert Reference Group, NHS England, London, UK.
⁵ MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, UK.
⁶ Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁷ Department of Diabetes and Endocrinology, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
⁸ Division of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction, Imperial College London, London, UK.

PMID: 38644161
DOI: 10.1002/oby.24024

Abstract

Objective: The study objective was to assess participant weight change for the English National Health Service (NHS) Digital Weight Management Programme, the first such digital intervention to achieve population coverage.

Methods: A service evaluation was used to assess intervention effectiveness for adults with obesity and a diagnosis of hypertension and/or diabetes, between April 2021 and March 2022, using prospectively collected, national service-level data in England.

Results: Of the 63,937 referrals made from general practices, within the time period, 31,861 (50%) chose to take up the 12-week Programme. There were 31,718 participants who had time to finish the Programme; of those, 14,268 completed the Programme (defined as attending ≥60%), a 45% completion rate. The mean weight change for those who had time to finish the Programme was -2.2 kg (95% CI: -2.25 to -2.16), for those who completed it was -3.9 kg (95% CI: -3.99 to -3.84), and for those who had time to finish the Programme but did not complete it was -0.74 kg (95% CI: -0.79 to -0.70).

Conclusions: The NHS Digital Weight Management Programme is effective at achieving clinically meaningful weight loss. The outcomes compare favorably to web-based weight management interventions tested in randomized trials and those delivered as face-to-face interventions, and results suggest that the approach may, with increased participation, bring population-level benefits.