Video telehealth for weight maintenance of African-American women

Abstract

We evaluated the effect of home telehealth on weight maintenance after a group-based weight loss programme. The home telehealth intervention comprised telephone counselling and home Internet-enabled digital video recorders (DVRs) with three channels of video programmes. The video content provided reinforcement and support to promote problem solving, prevent relapse and sustain motivation. Eighty-eight obese or overweight African-American women were randomized to receive monthly telephone counselling (control) or the home telehealth intervention. The weight change during maintenance was not significant in either group (0.6 kg in the intervention group, 0.0 kg in the control group), and there was no significant difference between them. Changes in diet, physical activity, social support and self-efficacy during the maintenance period did not differ significantly between groups. DVR use was low: during the intervention, the number of valid DVR viewings ranged from zero to 42 per person. DVR use was positively associated with previous attendance at the weight loss classes. Home video-based telehealth is a new method of delivering a weight loss maintenance intervention to African-American women. It had no effect on weight maintenance in the present study.

Figure 1

Participants were recruited in two cohorts

Figure 2

Participant flow. Only participants with weight data at both the pre-randomization visit and the 9-month follow-up visit were included in the primary analysis.