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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2022 Nov;30(11):2194-2203.
doi: 10.1002/oby.23548. Epub 2022 Sep 25.

The use of virtual visits for obesity pharmacotherapy in patients with overweight or obesity compared with in-person encounters

Marcio L Griebeler  1 , W Scott Butsch  2 , Paloma Rodriguez  1 , Laura Lomeli  1 , Matthew Kampert  1 , Vinni Makin  1 , Ula Abed Alwahab  1 , Elena Borukh  1 , Erin Daigle  1 , James Bena  3 , Kevin M Pantalone  1 , Bartolome Burguera  1
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

The use of virtual visits for obesity pharmacotherapy in patients with overweight or obesity compared with in-person encounters

Marcio L Griebeler et al. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to demonstrate noninferiority using telehealth in treating obesity with phentermine in patients with BMI ≥ 27 kg/m2 with comorbidities or BMI ≥ 30 compared with the standard in-person approach over a 90-day period.

Methods: A 12-week, randomized, prospective, single-center, open label trial compared the use of virtual visits versus in-person visits for the treatment of obesity using phentermine. The primary end point was percentage mean change in body weight from baseline to 12 weeks. A noninferiority approach assuming a 3% noninferiority region was used to assess effect size differences.

Results: The weight loss in the virtual visit arm was noninferior to the in-person arm at all time points. At 12 weeks, the mean change in weight was -6.5% among the virtual group and -7.7% among the in-person group. In addition, 65% of virtual patients and 71% of in-person patients demonstrated a weight reduction of at least 5%. There was no difference in medication tolerance, adherence, and compliance.

Conclusions: These results indicate that the virtual obesity pharmacotherapy visits in adults aged 18 to 65 years prescribed phentermine are effective and noninferior in achieving meaningful weight loss after 12 weeks. Future clinical trials are needed to better assess the effectiveness of televisits for obesity pharmacotherapy.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04614545.

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Conflict of interest statement

W. Scott Butsch reports being a health care consultant for the Clinical Advisory Board for Rhythm Pharmaceuticals and the Obesity Educational Advisory Board for Novo Nordisk, A/S. Kevin M. Pantalone in the past 12 months reports receiving research support from Bayer, Novo Nordisk A/S, Merck, and Twinhealth, consulting honoraria from AstraZeneca, Bayer, Corcept Therapeutics, Diasome, Eli Lilly & Co., Merck, Novo Nordisk A/S, and Sanofi, and speaker honoraria from AstraZeneca, Corcept Therapeutics, Merck, and Novo Nordisk A/S. The other authors declared no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Trial scheme [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Mean percentage weight change from baseline in body weight over time by group (intention‐to‐treat analysis). There is no statistical difference between groups [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Proportions of patients achieving body weight reductions of at least 5%, 10%, and 15% from baseline to week 12 by group (intention‐to‐treat). There is no statistical difference between groups [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Waterfall plot—All patients. Individual weight loss among all patients from baseline to week 12 [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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