A development, evaluation, and usefulness of mediated behavioral weight control program

Obesity is one of the important public health problems, since it is associated with a shorter longevity, increased morbidity and excess medical care costs. The prevalence of obesity (body mass index: ≧25 kg/m^2) in Japan increased from 15.3% in 1976 to 22.5% in 1995. To address obesity as health-related problem, effective treatment strategies are needed that can be offered to large numbers of people on a community-wide basis at a reasonable cost. One public health approach that may have potential in this regard is a mediated behavioral weight control program. The mediated behavioral weight control program attracts for the most participants because of their flexibility and may be more cost-effectiveness in preventing and/or controlling obesity than face-to-face program. Therefore, this review article was firstly summarized the evidences from mediated weight control intervention research. Secondarily, we would like to introduce the outline for a randomized controlled trial of our original structured computer-tailored behavioral weight control program (Kenko-Tatsujin: KT Program, Omron Healthcare Campany). Finally, we discuss about the future direction and study task in the mediated weight control program. In the previous studies, the components of the mediated program were consisted of l) mail-based intervention, 2) telephone and/or computer-assisted interventions, 3) internet or interactive television-delivered intervention, and 4) computerized tailored materials or intervention. The median of the weight loss in the reviewed 26 trials was about 4kg (mean = 5kg). The computerized tailored behavioral weight control program such as KT Program may be contributed to produce more effective and cost-effective method. Future research efforts should focus on investigating way to develop an effective weight-loss maintenance program