Alternative Healthcare Delivery Strategies to Prevent Weight Regain After Bariatric Surgery

Summary

Bariatric surgery is the most effective treatment for severe obesity, yet a significant percentage of patients achieve suboptimal results or present long-term weight regain. Given the strong association between poor outcomes and post-surgery psychological factors, it is crucial to implement post-surgical psychological interventions.

This randomized controlled trial aims to compare the efficacy of a novel, cost-effective, and timely-personalized treatment delivering strategy (stepped-care) with two different intensities 1) low-intensity intervention delivered by Facebook®, and 2) high-intensity program delivered online. It is also intended to study predictors, outcome moderators/mediators, and the underlying mechanisms of weight regain. Participants' assessment will include measures of pathological eating behavior, psychological impairment, negative urgency, and emotional regulation.

Conditions

• Obesity Adult Onset
• Eating Behavior

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Apolo_Bari Stepped-care intervention

Step 1 - Low-intensity intervention that will run on a private Facebook® group. Weekly, a subtopic and related activities are posted as short text/images. Patients are encouraged to participate by viewing publications, commenting, and posting their content. Step 2 - Will consist of an adjusted version of the Cognitive Behavior Treatment (CBT) program developed by Conceição et al. (2016). The intervention will last for 12-months and be delivered online by Facebook's functionalities, namely chat and calls. The intervention offered includes three components: 1) a psychoeducational cognitive-behavioral-based self-help manual that consists of 12 different modules. Each month a different topic will be covered and divided into four weekly sub-topics, which are supported with a set of related CBT tasks; 2) interactive call sessions with a psychologist (30 min at the beginning of each month); 3) monthly monitoring of risk-behaviors responded every session.

OTHER

Treatment as Usual for Bariatric Surgery

Treatment as Usual for bariatric surgery in portuguese public hospitals.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Hospital de Braga

  collaborator OTHER

• Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

  collaborator OTHER

• Centro Hospitalar De São João, E.P.E.

  collaborator OTHER

• Universidade do Porto

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Minho

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-05-01

Primary Completion

2024-11-30

Completion

2026-12-31

Countries

• Portugal

Study Locations