Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Oct 28:12:343-348.
doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.10.024. eCollection 2018 Dec.

Evaluating an insurer-based health coaching program: Impact of program engagement on healthcare utilization and weight loss

Natalie Reid  1 , Wendy Bennett  2   3 , Janelle Coughlin  3   4 , Jennifer Thrift  5 , Sarah Kachur  6 , Kimberly A Gudzune  2   3
Affiliations

Evaluating an insurer-based health coaching program: Impact of program engagement on healthcare utilization and weight loss

Natalie Reid et al. Prev Med Rep. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Insurers and employers are increasingly offering lifestyle and weight-loss coaching programs; however, few evaluations have examined their effectiveness. Our objectives were to determine whether level of program engagement was associated with differences in healthcare utilization and weight pre/post coaching. We conducted a retrospective evaluation of enrollees in an insurer-based telephonic health coaching program in Maryland (2013-2014). Our independent variables were program engagement benchmarks (≥3 and ≥6 sessions). Our dependent variables included change in outpatient and emergency department (ED) visits (more visits post program, fewer visits post, or no change pre-post) and associated costs (difference pre-post) using claims data. We calculated mean percent weight change from baseline. We used multivariate-adjusted linear and multinomial logistic regression, as appropriate, to examine the association between outcomes and engagement benchmarks. We included 225 enrollees with mean age 50.7 years, 81.3% women, and mean body mass index of 35.0 kg/m2. Most participants focused on weight management (75.6%) and improving general health (57.8%). Few individuals had outpatient or ED visits, and no significant changes in healthcare utilization were associated with program engagement. Among the weight management subgroup (n = 170), mean weight change was -2.1% (SD 5.1). Participants achieved significantly greater weight loss if they met the 6-session engagement benchmark (β -3.5%, p < 0.01). Weight management is a popular focus for health coaching participants, and these programs can achieve modest weight loss. Programs should consider designing and testing strategies that promote engagement, given that weight-loss success was improved if participants completed at least 6 coaching sessions.

Keywords: Health insurance; Health services research; Risk reduction behavior.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of individuals completing each coaching session (1–6). Coaching sessions occurred during 2013–2014 among beneficiaries of a Maryland-based health insurer. Displays the number of individuals who completed each coaching session, and percent of sample completing each session is located in the table below the graph.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Adams S.R., Goler N.C., Sanna R.S. Patient satisfaction and perceived success with a telephonic health coaching program: the natural experiments for translation in diabetes (NEXT-D) study, northern California, 2011. Prev. Chronic Dis. 2013;10 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Anon. Chronic disease prevention and health promotion. Chronic diseases. http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/overview/ Accessed on February 23, 2016 at.
    1. Anon. The Johns Hopkins ACG system. https://www.hopkinsacg.org Accessed on August 24, 2017 at.
    1. Appel L.J., Clark J.M., Yeh H.C. Comparative effectiveness of weight-loss interventions in clinical practice. N. Engl. J. Med. 2011;365:1959–1968. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bloom B.B., Mehta A.K., Clark J.M., Gudzune K.A. Guideline-concordant weight-loss programs in an urban area are uncommon and difficult to identify through the internet. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2016;24:583–588. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources

  NODES
Association 1
INTERN 7
twitter 2