Transtheoretical model-based multiple behavior intervention for weight management: effectiveness on a population basis. Transtheoretical model-chronic disease care for obesity in primary care: a randomized trial. Initial efficacy of MI, TTM tailoring and HRI's with multiple behaviors for employee health promotion. Effectiveness of a behavioral weight control program for blacks and whites with NIDDM. Minimal interventions for weight control: a cost-effective alternative.
The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity underscores the need for evidence-based, easily disseminable interventions for weight management that can be delivered on a population basis. The Transtheoretical Model (TTM) offers a promising theoretical framework for multiple behavior weight management interventions.
                Overweight or obese adults (BMI 25-39.9; n=1277) were randomized to no-treatment control or home-based, stage-matched multiple behavior interventions for up to three behaviors related to weight management at 0, 3, 6, and 9 months. All participants were re-assessed at 6, 12, and 24 months.
                Significant treatment effects were found for healthy eating (47.5% versus 34.3%), exercise (44.90% versus 38.10%), managing emotional distress (49.7% versus 30.30%), and untreated fruit and vegetable intake (48.5% versus 39.0%) progressing to Action/Maintenance at 24 months. The groups differed on weight lost at 24 months. Co-variation of behavior change occurred and was much more pronounced in the treatment group, where individuals progressing to Action/Maintenance for a single behavior were 2.5-5 times more likely to make progress on another behavior. The impact of the multiple behavior intervention was more than three times that of single behavior interventions.
                This study demonstrates the ability of TTM-based tailored feedback to improve healthy eating, exercise, managing emotional distress, and weight on a population basis. The treatment produced a high level of population impact that future multiple behavior interventions can seek to surpass. To compare health benefits achieved in a transtheoretical model-chronic disease (TM-CD) minimal intervention for obesity vs. augmented usual care (AUC). Research Method and Procedures: This was a 2-year, randomized clinical trial with overweight or obese men and women from 15 primary care sites. AUC (n = 336) included dietary and exercise advice, prescriptions, and three 24-hour dietary recalls every 6 months. TM-CD care (n = 329) included AUC elements plus "stage of change" (SOC) assessments for five target behaviors every other month, mailed SOC and target behavior-matched workbooks, and monthly telephone calls from a weight-loss advisor. Weight change was the primary outcome.
                Repeated measures models under the missing at random assumption yielded nonsignificant adjusted differences between the AUC and TM-CD groups for weight change, waist circumference, energy intake or expenditure, blood pressure, and blood lipids. The pattern of change over time suggested that TM-CD participants were trying harder to impact target behaviors during the first 6 to 12 months of the trial but relapsed afterward. Sixty percent of trial participants maintained their baseline weights for 18 to 24 months.
                A combination of mailed patient materials and monthly telephone calls based on the transtheoretical model and some elements of chronic disease care is not powerful enough, relative to AUC, to alter target behaviors among overweight primary care patients in an obesogenic environment. AUC may be sufficient to maintain weights among at-risk primary care patients. This study was designed to compare the initial efficacy of Motivational Interviewing (MI), Online Transtheoretical Model (TTM)-tailored communications and a brief Health Risk Intervention (HRI) on four health risk factors (inactivity, BMI, stress and smoking) in a worksite sample.
                A randomized clinical trial assigned employees to one of three recruitment strategies and one of the three treatments. The treatment protocol included an HRI session for everyone and in addition either a recommended three TTM online sessions or three MI in person or telephone sessions over 6 months. At the initial post-treatment assessment at 6 months, groups were compared on the percentage who had progressed from at risk to taking effective action on each of the four risks.
                Compared to the HRI only group, the MI and TTM groups had significantly more participants in the Action stage for exercise and effective stress management and significantly fewer risk behaviors at 6 months. MI and TTM group outcomes were not different.
                This was the first study to demonstrate that MI and online TTM could produce significant multiple behavior changes. Future research will examine the long-term impacts of each treatment, their cost effectiveness, effects on productivity and quality of life and process variables mediating outcomes. To compare the weight losses of black and white patients with NIDDM treated in a year-long behavioral weight loss program.
                Subjects were randomly assigned to a behavioral program that either used a low-calorie diet throughout or included two 12-week periods of a very-low calorie diet (VLCD). Weight, dietary intake, and exercise were measured at 0, 6, and 12 months of treatment, and attendance and self-monitoring records were assessed weekly throughout the year.
                Blacks had smaller weight losses than whites regardless of treatment condition. Overall weight losses (baseline to 1 year) were 7.1 kg in blacks vs 13.9 kg in whites. The differences in overall outcome resulted primarily from greater weight regain in blacks during months 6-12 than in whites. There was a trend for blacks to have poorer attendance than whites during the latter half of the program and for blacks to report smaller changes in calorie intake from baseline to 6 months.
                The results confirm prior studies with nondiabetic patients showing smaller weight losses in blacks than in whites and suggest that these differences may result primarily from faster weight regain in blacks. Further research is needed to more carefully examine the variables that may explain this difference and to develop more effective programs for blacks with NIDDM. Two studies were conducted to evaluate simpler, less intensive interventions for weight control which presumably would be more cost-effective and efficient than a "full-length" behavioral treatment program. In Study 1, participants in a minimal intervention (MI1) program who attended no regularly scheduled meetings and initially only received three simple verbal instructions about how to lose weight, lost an average of 11.1 lb. by 7-month follow-up. Subjects in three variations of a shortened, less intensive, 6-week behavioral weight loss program lost 7.8, 6.5 and 6.3 lb. but did not significantly differ from MI1 subjects in the amount of weight lost. In Study 2, MI2 subjects lost 5.5 lb. compared to subjects in two variations of a full-length program who lost 8.1 and 11.1 lb. by 6-month follow-up. Again, none of the groups significantly differed from each other in the amount lost. It was concluded that a minimal intervention program seems to produce weight loss and to be a cost-effective and efficient method for some subjects. The difference between the two minimal intervention programs may be related to the payment of a monetary deposit; a model for future research was presented to investigate simpler, less intensive interventions in combination with more complex ones in a "stepped-care" fashion.
TTM SOC and a combination of physical activity, diet and other interventions resulted in minimal weight loss, and there was no conclusive evidence for sustainable weight loss. The impact of TTM SOC as theoretical framework in weight loss management may depend on how it is used as a framework for intervention and in combination with other strategies like diet and physical activities.