Development and implementation cost analysis of telephone- and Internet-based interventions for the maintenance of weight loss.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

The Weight Loss Maintenance Trial (WLM) was a multicenter, randomized trial comparing two weight loss maintenance interventions, a personal contact (PC) program with primarily telephone-based monthly contacts, and an Internet-based program (interactive technology, IT), to a self-directed control group, among overweight or obese individuals at high cardiovascular risk. This study describes implementation costs of both interventions as well as IT development costs.

Methods

Resources were micro-costed in 2006 dollars from the primary perspective of a sponsoring healthcare system considering adopting an extant intervention, rather than developing its own. Costs were discounted at 3 percent annually. Length of trial participation was 30 months (randomization during Feb

SUBMITTER: Meenan RT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3770469 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature