Background: Obesity is a major risk factor associated with multiple chronic diseases, presenting a significant global health challenge. Current evidence supports that group medical visits, an alternative format for the provision of primary care, are effective in disease management.
Purpose: The goal of this project was to examine the effectiveness of group medical visits for the management of obesity in primary care.
Methods: Individuals with a BMI greater than 30 participated in a series of six multidisciplinary group medical visits over a 12-week period. Each session included a brief individual medical visit followed by group education and discussion. Topics included; introduction and goal setting, behavior changes, nutrition, physical activity, challenges/struggles, and future goals.
Results: Data was obtained pre and post 12 week group sessions from health records and from questionnaires. Nine individuals age 52 to 76, with a variety of chronic medical conditions in addition to obesity, participated. Following with 12-week group sessions, attendees, as a group had a decrease in weight (P=.006), BMI (P=.007) and waist circumference (P=.019). Participants and providers indicated high levels of satisfaction. All participants found that they were able to make better choices about general health, identified group visits as more helpful than individual healthy life style discussions, and would participate in this type of visit again.
Conclusions: This collaborative model of care needs further evaluation with larger groups; however, the group medical visit appears to be a successful method for educating and supporting lifestyle modifications for individuals with obesity in this clinical setting
