University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers, together with colleagues at the University of South Carolina, have received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to determine if online behavioral weight-management programs for rural residents can be improved by adding a human touch. The goal is to help residents of rural areas, where in-person weight-loss programs can be scarce.
People living in rural areas experience significantly higher rates of both obesity and chronic illnesses associated with obesity. Many rural areas also have an increasing lack of access to healthcare resources. So finding better ways to help rural residents manage their weight could have big benefits for both individuals and society. “Weight loss of as little as 5% to 7% can reduce obesity-associated co-morbidities,” said UVA researcher Becca Krukowski, PhD, one of the principal investigators. “Although lifestyle interventions successfully produce weight losses of this magnitude, access to weight management programs is limited in rural areas. This study will examine how digital interventions can be optimized for delivering weight loss programs to rural populations.”
More than 600 volunteer participants will be enrolled in a core online 24-week weight-loss program and randomly assigned to receive one of two forms of feedback on their self-monitoring efforts, as well as potentially receiving additional components including weekly group video sessions and individual coaching calls. The study is currently enrolling the last few participants for a group starting in August 2024 and will continue accepting applications for future start dates through the end of 2025.
Ultimately, Krukowski and her team hope their research will lead to optimized online weight-loss programs that will be more accessible to rural residents than in-person programs. That would increase the public-health benefits of the programs and will inform public health policy decisions such as whether the programs should be covered by Medicare, Medicaid and other health insurance companies.
“The iREACH study is an exciting opportunity for rural residents to have access to a cutting-edge behavioral weight loss program and also contribute to science,” Krukowski said. Over the next year and a half, she and her collaborators will enroll and provide the iREACH program for a total of 616 men and women, with the goal of determining which approach, or which combination of approaches, is most effective at promoting weight loss and subsequent weight maintenance.
The trial is IRB No. HSR220408. For more information, visit https://www.ireachstudy.org/ or call 1-866-271-7217, or email the study coordinator, Teace Markwalter, at ireach3@mailbox.sc.edu.