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Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Making Weight Watchers Available to Tennessee Medicaid (TennCare) Recipients

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ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

In 2006, Tennessee Medicaid (TennCare) offered its recipients access to Weight Watchers for a nominal fee. The aim of this study was to determine the weight change among adult participants.

METHODS

This is a retrospective analysis of weight change among overweight and obese TennCare recipients who participated in the program. Weight change was calculated as the median difference from the first date of participation to the last. Weight change was also calculated as median percentage change from initial weight and categorized as weight loss or gain of 0 to 5, ≥5 to 10, and ≥10 %.

RESULTS

During the study period, 1,605 individuals started the program and 1192 had at least one follow-up weight measurement and thus met the inclusion criteria for the study. Women (n = 1149) had a BMI of 39.6 kg/m2 and men (n = 43) had a BMI of 43.0 kg/m2. The median weight loss for all participants was 1.9 kg, or 1.8 % of initial weight. Twenty percent of participants lost 5 % or more of their initial body weight while participating in the program. Over 13 % of participants only attended two meetings; on average, these participants lost 0.5 % of initial weight. Over 23 % of participants attended 13 or more meetings, and they lost an average of 6.4 % of initial weight.

DISCUSSION

Twenty percent of TennCare recipients who joined Weight Watchers lost a clinically significant amount of weight. Participants who attended more meetings lost more weight. Reimbursement for Weight Watchers has been maintained by all of the Medicaid managed care organizations in Tennessee. Partnerships that allow low-income populations to access weight loss programs may provide a valuable weight management tool.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge TennCare for providing access to their data and Joan Sartin for answering questions related to the TennCare Weight Watchers® Partnership Program.

This study was funded, in part, by grants P30-DK-048520-16 S1 (Mitchell), P30-DK-048520 (Hill), and AHA-10SDG2610292 (Tsai).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they do not have a conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, 80045, USA

    Nia S. Mitchell MD, MPH & Adam G. Tsai MD, MSCE

  2. Colorado Center for Health and Wellness, University of Colorado Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, Aurora, CO, USA

    Nia S. Mitchell MD, MPH, James O. Hill PhD & Adam G. Tsai MD, MSCE

  3. Colorado Health Outcomes Program, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA

    Nia S. Mitchell MD, MPH

  4. Department of Biostatistics and Informatics, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA

    Misoo C. Ellison PhD

  5. Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA

    James O. Hill PhD

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  1. Nia S. Mitchell MD, MPH
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  2. Misoo C. Ellison PhD
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  3. James O. Hill PhD
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  4. Adam G. Tsai MD, MSCE
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nia S. Mitchell MD, MPH.

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Mitchell, N.S., Ellison, M.C., Hill, J.O. et al. Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Making Weight Watchers Available to Tennessee Medicaid (TennCare) Recipients. J GEN INTERN MED 28, 12–17 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-012-2083-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-012-2083-8

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