Maâthermes a Randomised Controlled Trial of Spa Treatment of Overweight and Obesity

Detailed Summary

Public health campaigns and industry-supported changes in our food supply have obviously failed to control the epidemic to date. However, customized life style modification programs (LSMP) comprising diet, physical activity and behavioral therapy (a set of principles designed to help patients achieve their goals) induce weight loss of 10% of baseline body weight after 16 to 26 weeks of intervention . Long-term weight control is then facilitated by an appropriate weight-loss maintenance strategy such as continued patient-therapist contact (whether provided in person or by telephone or e-mail). This strategy allows patients to stabilize at an average of 5% and 3% loss of baseline body weight after 1 and 2 years, respectively. Numerous reports have concluded that this modest weight loss contributes to important health benefits. However, the high dropout rate during weight-management strategies presumably means that treatment is mainly effective in highly motivated patients, as the highest success rates are likely to be reported among study completers. Many individuals appear to conclude that the benefits of weight-management strategies are not worth the cost (i.e. time, money, and continued unrewarding efforts). This underlines the critical need to implement new, practical and affordable strategies to induce and maintain weight loss that can be achieved by most patients. The main objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that a 3 week intensive course of spa therapy can reduce the weight (and/or BMI) of overweight or obese patient at 14 months (BMI from 27 to 35).

Study Details

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Interventions