Application of telemedicine in obesity management

Summary Introduction To evaluate the effectiveness of obesity intervention with telemedicine support technology in patients who have been recently diagnosed as overweight or obese, in comparison to usual protocols currently implemented in our area. Material and methods Randomized, controlled, double-blind, parallel clinical trial comparing 2 arms, multicentre study in overweight or obese patients with a 12-month follow-up. Patients were randomized into two groups: Intervention in primary care centres with a telematic platform support (G1) and a control group provided constantly with guidelines to lose weight and follow-up in primary care centres (G2). Variables were collected: weight, height, BMI, waist circumference, lipid parameters, blood pressure and glycaemia. After the interventions were conducted, indicators of clinical relevance were studied, i.e. relative risk (RR), absolute risk reduction (ARR), relative risk reduction (RRR) and number needed to treat (NNT) both by intention-to-treat and by biological efficacy. Results One hundred and sixteen patients were included in the study where 61 were randomized to group 1 and 55 to group 2. Of the study population, 58.6% were women and 41.4% were men. Patients’ weight in both groups descended in each of the visits, observing an overall average weight reduction at the end of the study of 3.06 kg, being 4.3 kg in group 1 and 1.8 kg in the control group. It also was noted that cholesterol levels in both groups were reduced. On the other hand, the triglycerides levels were significantly reduced only in the study group G1, and HDL was increased in both groups, but more in G1. Regarding of clinically relevant parameters were G1 versus G2: RR: 1.21 to 3.57; RRR: 21.3 to 256.8; ARR: 8.7 to 42.4, and NNT: 3 to 12. Discussion and conclusions Both groups were able to reduce the weight while the group with the telemedicine support based on Medtep digital platform showed significant differences.