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Patient Adherence to a Real-World Digital Asynchronous Weight-Loss Program in Australia That Combines Behavioural and GLP-1 RA Therapy: A Mixed Methods Study
Talay, L.; Vickers, M. Patient Adherence to a Real-World Digital, Asynchronous Weight Loss Program in Australia That Combines Behavioural and GLP-1 RA Therapy: A Mixed Methods Study. Behav. Sci.2024, 14, 480.
Talay, L.; Vickers, M. Patient Adherence to a Real-World Digital, Asynchronous Weight Loss Program in Australia That Combines Behavioural and GLP-1 RA Therapy: A Mixed Methods Study. Behav. Sci. 2024, 14, 480.
Talay, L.; Vickers, M. Patient Adherence to a Real-World Digital, Asynchronous Weight Loss Program in Australia That Combines Behavioural and GLP-1 RA Therapy: A Mixed Methods Study. Behav. Sci.2024, 14, 480.
Talay, L.; Vickers, M. Patient Adherence to a Real-World Digital, Asynchronous Weight Loss Program in Australia That Combines Behavioural and GLP-1 RA Therapy: A Mixed Methods Study. Behav. Sci. 2024, 14, 480.
Abstract
Increasingly large numbers of people are using digital weight-loss services (DWLSs) to treat overweight or obesity. Although it is widely agreed that digital modalities improve access to care in general, obesity stakeholders remain concerned that many DWLSs are not comprehensive or sustainable enough to deliver meaningful health outcomes. This study adopted a mixed-methods approach to assess why and after how long patients tend to discontinue Austral-ia’s largest DWLS, a program that combines behavioural and pharmacological therapy under the guidance of a multidisciplinary care team. We found that in a cohort of patients who commenced the Eucalyptus DWLS between January and June 2022 (n=5604), mean program adherence was 171.2 (±158.2). Inadequate supply of a patient’s desired Glucose-like peptide-1 receptor agonist medication was the most common reason for discontinuation (43.7%), followed by program cost (26.2%), result dissatisfaction (9.9%), and service dissatisfaction (7.2%). Statistical tests revealed that ethnicity and age both had a significant effect on patient adherence. These findings suggest that DWLSs have the potential to improve access to comprehensive, continuous obesity care, but that care models need to improve upon the one observed in the Eucalyptus Australia DWLS to maximise program adherence.
Keywords
Obesity; Digital weight loss; Program adherence; Behavioural therapy; GLP-1 RA therapy; Real-world evidence; Continuous care
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Public Health and Health Services
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.