Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Oct;12(5):e12539.
doi: 10.1111/cob.12539. Epub 2022 Jun 28.

Are individual or group interventions more effective for long-term weight loss in adults with obesity? A systematic review

Sarah Street  1 , Alison Avenell  1
Affiliations

Are individual or group interventions more effective for long-term weight loss in adults with obesity? A systematic review

Sarah Street et al. Clin Obes. 2022 Oct.

Abstract

Guidelines recommend individual and group interventions for weight loss, based on preference. Our 2009 systematic review compared long-term effectiveness of individual or group approaches to the same intervention, but there are new randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of high-quality data. We updated and expanded our previous systematic review. We searched Medline and Embase from 1966 to May 2021, and a clinical trial register from 1966 to 2017. Review Manager (5.4.1) was used to conduct meta-analysis. Ten RCTs were included. The primary outcome, mean weight change at final follow-up, was -1.33 kg (95% confidence interval CI: -2.04, -0.62; 10 trials, 2169 participants), favouring group interventions (p < .001). For the secondary outcomes, attainment of ≥5% body weight loss at final follow-up, the risk ratio (RR) was 1.36 (95% CI 1.05, 1.77; three trials, 1520 participants), favouring group interventions (p = .02); attrition at final follow-up was similar between group and individual arms of trials, RR 0.93 (95% CI 0.82, 1.07) (p = .31). Group interventions can be more effective than individual interventions for long-term weight loss in adults with obesity. However, few studies were included in the clinically relevant, secondary outcome measures. Research on delivering group processes in weight management is needed.

Keywords: adult; group; individual; obesity; systematic review; weight management.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flow diagram of study selection
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Mean weight change at final follow‐up in kg
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Attainment of ≥5% weight loss at final follow‐up
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Adair T, Lopez AD. The role of overweight and obesity in adverse cardiovascular disease mortality trends: an analysis of multiple cause of death data from Australia and the USA. BMC Med. 2020;18(1):199. doi:10.1186/s12916-020-01666-y - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lung T, Jan S, Tan EJ, Killedar A, Hayes A. Impact of overweight, obesity and severe obesity on life expectancy of Australian adults. Int J Obes. 2019;43(4):782‐789. doi:10.1038/s41366-018-0210-2 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Olm M, Stark RG, Beck N, Roger C, Leidl R. Impact of interventions to reduce overnutrition on healthcare costs related to obesity and type 2 diabetes: a systematic review. Nutr Rev. 2020;78(5):412‐435. doi:10.1093/nutrit/nuz070 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Yusefzadeh H, Rashidi A, Rahimi B. Economic burden of obesity: a systematic review. Soc Health Behav. 2019;2:7‐12. doi:10.4103/SHB.SHB_37_18 - DOI
    1. Zhang P, Sun X, Jin H, Zhang F‐L, Guo Z‐N, Yang Y. Association between obesity type and common vascular and metabolic diseases: a cross‐sectional study. Front Endocrinol. 2020;10:900. doi:10.3389/fendo.2019.00900 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types