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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Cancer

Date Submitted: Jan 22, 2017
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 22, 2017 - Feb 23, 2017
Date Accepted: Jul 1, 2017
(closed for review but you can still tweet)

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Comparison of Internet and Telephone Interventions for Weight Loss Among Cancer Survivors: Randomized Controlled Trial and Feasibility Study

Cox M, Basen-Engquist K, Carmack CL, Blalock J, Li Y, Murray J, Pisters L, Rodriguez-Bigas M, Song J, Cox-Martin E, Demark-Wahnefried W

Comparison of Internet and Telephone Interventions for Weight Loss Among Cancer Survivors: Randomized Controlled Trial and Feasibility Study

JMIR Cancer 2017;3(2):e16

DOI: 10.2196/cancer.7166

PMID: 28954716

PMCID: 5637068

Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.

Comparison of Internet and Telephone Interventions for Weight Loss Among Cancer Survivors: Randomized Controlled Trial and Feasibility Study

  • Matthew Cox; 
  • Karen Basen-Engquist; 
  • Cindy L Carmack; 
  • Janice Blalock; 
  • Yisheng Li; 
  • James Murray; 
  • Louis Pisters; 
  • Miguel Rodriguez-Bigas; 
  • Jaejoon Song; 
  • Emily Cox-Martin; 
  • Wendy Demark-Wahnefried

Background:

Weight loss interventions have been successfully delivered via several modalities, but recent research has focused on more disseminable and sustainable means such as telephone- or Internet-based platforms.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to compare an Internet-delivered weight loss intervention to a comparable telephone-delivered weight loss intervention.

Methods:

This randomized pilot study examined the effects of 6-month telephone- and Internet-delivered social cognitive theory–based weight loss interventions among 37 cancer survivors. Measures of body composition, physical activity, diet, and physical performance were the outcomes of interest.

Results:

Participants in the telephone intervention (n=13) showed greater decreases in waist circumference (–0.75 cm for telephone vs –0.09 cm for Internet, P=.03) than the Internet condition (n=24), and several other outcomes trended in the same direction. Measures of engagement (eg, number of telephone sessions completed and number of log-ins) suggest differences between groups which may account for the difference in outcomes.

Conclusions:

Cancer survivors in the telephone group evidenced better health outcomes than the Internet group. Group differences may be due to higher engagement in the telephone group. Incorporating a telephone-based component into existing weight loss programs for cancer survivors may help enhance the reach of the intervention while minimizing costs. More research is needed on how to combine Internet and telephone weight loss intervention components so as to maximize engagement and outcomes.

ClinicalTrial:

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01311856; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01311856 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6tKdklShY)


 Citation

Please cite as:

Cox M, Basen-Engquist K, Carmack CL, Blalock J, Li Y, Murray J, Pisters L, Rodriguez-Bigas M, Song J, Cox-Martin E, Demark-Wahnefried W

Comparison of Internet and Telephone Interventions for Weight Loss Among Cancer Survivors: Randomized Controlled Trial and Feasibility Study

JMIR Cancer 2017;3(2):e16

DOI: 10.2196/cancer.7166

PMID: 28954716

PMCID: 5637068

Per the author's request the PDF is not available.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.