Endocrine Abstracts

Background

Structured lifestyle modification programmes are offered as first line treatment to patients referred to bariatric specialist services. We sought to describe changes in anthropometric and metabolic characteristics in a cohort of bariatric patients following completion of an eight-week, multidisciplinary group-based lifestyle intervention focussed on diet and physical activity.

Methods

We conducted a prospective cohort study of all patients who completed the programme from 2013 to 2019. Weight, body mass index, blood pressure, HbA1c, lipid profile and functional capacity (Incremental shuttle walk test) at baseline and follow-up were compared in per-protocol analyses.

Results

Of 1122 patients enrolled in the program, 877 (78.2%) attended for follow up measures. Mean age was 47.3 ± 11.9 years and 66.9% were female. BMI decreased from 47.0 ± 7.8 to 46.2 ± 7.8 kgm^-2 (P<0.001), weight decreased from 131.6 ± 25.5 to 129.5 ± 7.8 kg (P<0.001) and the number of patients achieving HbA1c <53 mmol/l increased from 79.4% to 83.6% (P = <0.001). There were also improvements in blood pressure, lipid profiles and functional capacity: MET (metabolic equivalents of thermogenesis) max 5.6 ± 2.1 vs 7.0 ± 2.8 (P = <0.001).

Conclusions

Adults with severe and complicated obesity referred from a hospital-based bariatric service who completed eight weeks of supervised, group-based structured lifestyle modification had improvements in anthropometric and metabolic characteristics consistent with a reduction in cardiovascular risk.