{"doi":"10.1002/oby.23031","title":"Attrition Bias in an Observational Study of Very Low‐Energy Diet: A Cohort Study","abstract":"OBJECTIVE: Obesity treatment is plagued by attrition. Estimates of attrition bias are needed. Thus, in this study, percent change from baseline BMI at 1, 2, and 3 years following enrollment in a 2-year weight management program using a very low-energy diet was calculated. Program data were supplemented with information from medical records. METHODS: Attrition was classified as occurring early (<6 months), late (6-21 months), at program completion (22-28 months), and after program completion (>28 months). Stepwise multivariable regression examined attrition and other covariates. RESULTS: increase in baseline BMI was associated with a 2% (95% CI: 1%-3%) decrease in BMI. Individuals with early attrition decreased their mean BMI by 13% (11%-15%) less than program completers and by 9% (7%-11%) at 2 years. At 3 years, there was no significant difference in BMI between individuals with early attrition and program completers. However, BMI decreased 5% (3%- 8%) more in individuals who extended participation compared with program completers. CONCLUSIONS: Reported outcomes of weight management programs must account for program attrition.","journal":"Obesity","year":2020,"id":109103,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9222,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":50387,"name":"William H. Herman","orcid":"0000-0002-0502-674X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":502534,"name":"Amy E. Rothberg","orcid":"0000-0002-0243-9135","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":521761,"name":"Deanna J. M. Isaman","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":24,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:12:46.854423Z","pmid":"33200563","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}