{"doi":"10.1111/jgs.18088","title":"Long‐term weight change after a technology‐based weight loss intervention","abstract":"The proportion of older adults classified as having obesity now exceeds 35% and has led to a concomitant rise in the rates of obesity-related disability.1 Previous weight loss studies have shown that caloric restriction alone can lead to detrimental effects on muscle function and declines in physical function in older adults.2 Programs that also include structured resistance and aerobic exercise plans have demonstrated synergistic improvements in physical function.3 However, access to such programs is limited, particularly for patients residing in rural areas. Thus, this demographic may benefit from the technology-based delivery of health promotion interventions. We previously published feasibility findings from a 6-month technology-based intervention that offered dietary counseling and a structured exercise program for 53 older adults with obesity.4 This multicomponent diet and exercise intervention was acceptable and feasible, resulted in 4.7 ± 3.5% weight loss, and demonstrated improvements in physical function (30-s sit-to-stand: +3.1 ± 4.2 reps; 6-min walk: +42.0 ± 77.3 m). Questions remain regarding the long-term sustainability of weight loss interventions, particularly for older adults. This report shares our findings on its long-term sustainability 1 year after completion of the active intervention for both participants who responded significantly to the initial intervention and those who did not. Details on the design, setting, and recruitment of this pilot study have been previously published.4 This was a single center, pre/post, 26-week technology-based weight management intervention consisting of nutrition and exercise components. There were 53 community-dwelling participants aged ≥65 years with a body mass index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m2 residing in rural New England. The nutrition encounters included eighteen 30-min virtual one-on-one personal nutrition sessions and seven in-person group sessions. The exercise component included forty 75-min virtual group sessions, and seven in-person group sessions delivered by a physical therapist focusing on aerobic activities, resistance, flexibility, and balance. For this analysis, we evaluated participants' weight at 12 months from intervention completion relative to weight at baseline and at the time of intervention completion. These 12-month values were abstracted from the institution's electronic health record. For those with missing weight, we sent surveys to ask them their self-reported weight but had no response (n = 2). We compared outcomes for responders, defined as those who lost ≥5% of their body weight during the intervention period, and nonresponders, defined as those completing the program but did not.5 Descriptive statistics were conducted, including an ANOVA testing over time. All analyses were conducted using R version 4.1.1. Of the n = 44 that completed the intervention, 50% of the cohort (n = 22) responded to the initial intervention. There were no significant differences across several demographic variables and comorbidities between responders and non-responders (Table 1).6 Among completers, baseline and 6-month (intervention completion) weights were 97.8 ± 16.3 and 93.2 ± 15.8 kg, respectively (Δ = −4.7 ± 3.4 kg; p < 0.001). Mean weight at 18-months (12-months post-intervention completion) was 92.6 ± 16.8 kg (n = 42). This was significantly less than the baseline weight (Δ = −5.3 ± 7.1 kg; p < 0.001) but no different from the 6-month weight (Δ = −0.6 ± 6.3; p = 0.60; Figure 1). Responders' mean baseline and 6-month weights were 99.6 ± 14.8 versus 92.4 ± 13.9 kg (Δ = −7.2 ± 2.5; p < 0.001). Their mean weight at 18-months was 91.6 ± 13.6 kg (n = 21). This was significantly lower than at baseline (Δ = −8.9 ± 9.2; p < 0.001) but no different from their 6-month weight (Δ = −1.5 ± 8.6; p = 0.44; Figure 1). In non-responders, the mean weights at baseline compared to 6-months weights were 96.0 ± 17.8 versus 94.0 ± 17.7 kg (Δ = −2.0 ± 2.0; p < 0.001). Their mean weight at ","journal":"Journal of the American Geriatrics Society","year":2022,"id":294762,"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":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9558,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":881174,"name":"David H. Lynch","orcid":"0000-0002-2512-9367","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":881173,"name":"Hillary Spangler","orcid":"0000-0003-4027-4113","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":318784,"name":"Meredith N. Roderka","orcid":"0000-0002-3101-2659","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":264532,"name":"Curtis L. Petersen","orcid":"0000-0002-7210-447X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":272507,"name":"John A. Batsis","orcid":"0000-0002-0845-4416","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":980074,"name":"Brian Wood","orcid":"0000-0001-8914-6476","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":10,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:31:01.450041Z","pmid":"36262081","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":[]}