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Peer health coaching for overweight and obese individuals with serious mental illness: intervention development and initial feasibility study

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Translational Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Effective and scalable interventions are needed to reach a greater proportion of individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) who experience alarmingly high rates of obesity. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility of translating an evidenced-based professional health coach model (In SHAPE) to peer health coaching for overweight and obese individuals with SMI. Key stakeholders collaborated to modify In SHAPE to include a transition from professional health coaching to individual and group-based peer health coaching enhanced by mobile health technology. Ten individuals with SMI were recruited from a public mental health agency to participate in a 6-month feasibility pilot study of the new model. There was no overall significant change in mean weight; however, over half (56 %) of participants lost weight by the end of the intervention with mean weight loss 2.7 ± 2.1 kg. Participants reported high satisfaction and perceived benefits from the program. Qualitative interviews with key stakeholders indicated that the intervention was implemented as planned. This formative research showed that peer health coaching for individuals with SMI is feasible. Further research is needed to evaluate its effectiveness.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant number NIMH R01 MH089811) and the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (Grant number K12 HS021695-01). SB and KA were supported by the Health Promotion Research Center at Dartmouth supported by Cooperative Agreement Number U48DP005018 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The funders played no role in the design, conduct, or analysis of the study nor in the interpretation and reporting of the study findings.

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Adherence to ethical principles

All procedures, including the informed consent process, were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dartmouth Centers for Health and Aging, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH, USA

    Kelly A. Aschbrenner PhD, John A. Naslund MPH, Allison Kinney MSW & Stephen J. Bartels MD, MS

  2. Health Promotion Research Center at Dartmouth, Dartmouth College, Lebanon, NH, USA

    Kelly A. Aschbrenner PhD, John A. Naslund MPH & Stephen J. Bartels MD, MS

  3. The Dartmouth Instiute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Lebanon, NH, USA

    Kelly A. Aschbrenner PhD, John A. Naslund MPH & Stephen J. Bartels MD, MS

  4. Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Laura K. Barre MD

  5. Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Kim T. Mueser PhD

Authors
  1. Kelly A. Aschbrenner PhD
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  2. John A. Naslund MPH
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  3. Laura K. Barre MD
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  4. Kim T. Mueser PhD
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  5. Allison Kinney MSW
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  6. Stephen J. Bartels MD, MS
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kelly A. Aschbrenner PhD.

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Implications

Practice: Peer health coaching is a promising model for supporting health behavior change among individuals with serious mental illness.

Policy: Peer-led health promotion may offer innovative, cost-effective, and scalable interventions that require less intensive resources while delivering effective behavior change strategies that reach a greater proportion of at-risk individuals with serious mental illness

Research: Research is needed to evaluate the potential effectiveness of peer health coaching interventions for promoting fitness and weight loss among individuals with serious mental illness.

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Aschbrenner, K.A., Naslund, J.A., Barre, L.K. et al. Peer health coaching for overweight and obese individuals with serious mental illness: intervention development and initial feasibility study. Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res. 5, 277–284 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-015-0313-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-015-0313-4

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