How are treatment outcomes for people with severe obesity ImPROved by GROUP-based behavioural intervention?

Background to the research Approximately 25 million UK adults are overweight and another 15 million are obese, moreover, about 5 million adults are severely obese and 15 million middle-aged adults extremely obese These problems are worse in deprived communities and minority groups Severe obesity reduces life expectancy due to potential development of diabetes, heart disease and cancer People with severe obesity also report greatly impaired quality of life One treatment option is weight-loss surgery, but few people choose this, and other treatment options are limited The NHS provides specialised weight management services for people with severe obesity, but what these Tier 3 clinics do, and how effective they are is unclear Our project seeks to better understand these clinics and investigate whether a new facilitator-led, intensive, group-based behavioural programme (PROGROUP) is more effective and less costly than usual care for people with severe obesity Aim of the research The aim is to adopt best practice for group based treatment in Tier 3 weight management and to establish whether PROGROUP is in fact more effective and less costly than NHS usual care Design and methods 1 Initially we will run test groups to establish if PROGROUP will work on a larger scale, following which we will randomly allocate recruited patients to the new service if they are willing to be involved in the study This stage will include 120 patients at three clinics, receiving weight management services, with or without the new group programme If successful we will move to a large trial in the final stage 2 The large scale study will take place in 10 centres around the UK involving 1,100 patients After 12 months we will measure weight loss, cost-effectiveness of treatment, and other impacts that patients say are important to them We will then compare the PROGROUP programme to the old service Patient and public involvement We have formed a patient and public consultation group which will be central to developing and setting-up PROGROUP, and in identifying the impacts from the trial that are most relevant to patients Dissemination Our findings as to delivery of successful services that meet patients' needs will be shared regionally, nationally and internationally with the help of the patient expert consultation group We will do this through weight management groups we have worked with and our many stakeholders –including Association for the Study of Obesity, British Dietetic Association, commissioners and NHS England The results will also be published by press releases, newsletters, social media and in health journals