Rationale and design for a pragmatic effectiveness-implementation trial of online behavioral obesity treatment in primary care

摘要

Background: Current guidelines recommend behavioral intervention to achieve a modest weight loss (e.g., 3-5%) as a first-line obesity treatment. Online behavioral obesity treatment, delivered via the Rx Weight Loss (RxWL) program, produces clinically significant initial weight losses. However, the program's pragmatic utility in routine medical care has yet to be tested. Further, additional research is needed to determine how best to extend the RxWL program to facilitate weight loss maintenance. This paper summarizes methods for a pragmatic trial aimed at identifying optimal methods for implementation of RxWL in primary care and evaluating relative effectiveness of two approaches to weight loss maintenance.