Extra video meetings showed no clear advantage in an online obesity program
Working-age adults with obesity received online coaching alone or with extra meetings. Added meetings showed no clear advantage for mental health or eating habits; changes across all participants lack an untreated comparison.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Adding group or individual meetings to online coaching did not show a clear additional benefit for mental health or eating habits. Depression and binge-eating scores decreased across the combined study population, but everyone received the online program. Those pooled changes therefore cannot establish how much improvement the program caused compared with receiving no intervention.
The pooled analysis combined all treatment groups without an untreated comparator. The abstract does not provide confidence intervals for the reported score changes, limiting assessment of their precision.
What researchers found
Incremental benefit of video meetings
Group or individual meetings versus online coaching alone during the 12-month intervention. This does not establish that the approaches were equivalent.
The randomized comparison tested added support
All participants received a web program with coaching. Random assignment tested whether extra meetings improved outcomes beyond that shared program. Depression and burnout scores fluctuated inconsistently between groups, so isolated statistical differences did not establish superiority.
Follow-up raised a separate concern
During follow-up without further support, eating competence worsened, especially attitudes toward food and eating. This result concerns eating-related questionnaire outcomes; it does not show whether any particular schedule of continued support would prevent the decline.
The original publication
Effect of Minimal Individual or Group Enhancement in an eHealth Program on Mental Health, Health Behavior, and Work Ability in Employees With Obesity: Randomized Controlled Trial.
Männistö SA, Muotka J, Suojanen LU et al.
JMIR Ment Health · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40704713
- Record checked
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