Trial reportInternational journal of obesity (2005)2014
Cost effectiveness of primary care referral to a commercial provider for weight loss treatment, relative to standard care: a modelled lifetime analysis.
Trial report in International journal of obesity (2005), 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- Utility Decrements Associated with Adult Overweight and Obesity in Australia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.PharmacoEconomics · 2021Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Methods to Predict Weight Trajectories in Health Economic Models of Behavioral Weight-Management Programs: The Potential Role of Psychosocial Factors.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2020Pooled it
- OBEDIS Core Variables Project: European Expert Guidelines on a Minimal Core Set of Variables to Include in Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trials of Obesity Interventions.Obesity facts · 2020Guideline
- Trial
- Trial
- Assessing the value for money, from a policy maker perspective, of 24 randomised controlled trial designs for an online weight maintenance guided self-help intervention: an expected value of sample information analysis.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2025Article
- Critical Analysis of Markov Modeling for the Economic Evaluation of Obesity Interventions: A Systematic Review.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2025Review
- Cost-effectiveness of finerenone in chronic kidney disease associated with type 2 diabetes in The Netherlands.Cardiovascular diabetology · 2023Article
- Examining the feasibility and characteristics of realistic weight management support for patients: Focus groups with rural, micropolitan, and metropolitan primary care providers.Preventive medicine reports · 2021Article
- The Real Happy Study: Protocol for a Prospective Assessment of the Real-World Effectiveness of the HAPIFED Program-aBehavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Article
- Obesity and Weight Gain in Pregnancy and Postpartum: an Evidence Review of Lifestyle Interventions to Inform Maternal and Child Health Policies.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBecause of the high prevalence of overweight and obesity, there is a need to identify cost-effective approaches for weight loss in primary care and community settings.
objectiveTo evaluate the long-term cost effectiveness of a commercial weight loss programme (Weight Watchers) (CP) compared with standard care (SC), as defined by national guidelines.
methodsA Markov model was developed to calculate the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER), expressed as the cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) over the lifetime. The probabilities and quality-of-life utilities of outcomes were extrapolated from trial data using estimates from the published literature. A health sector perspective was adopted.
resultsOver a patient's lifetime, the CP resulted in an incremental cost saving of AUD 70 per patient, and an incremental 0.03 QALYs gained per patient. As such, the CP was found to be the dominant treatment, being more effective and less costly than SC (95% confidence interval: dominant to 6225 per QALY). Despite the CP delaying the onset of diabetes by ∼10 months, there was no significant difference in the incidence of type 2 diabetes, with the CP achieving <0.1% fewer cases than SC over the lifetime.
conclusionThe modelled results suggest that referral to community-based interventions may provide a highly cost-effective approach for those at high risk of weight-related comorbidities.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.