Talay Louis A, Vickers Matt
Department of Medical Research, Eucalyptus, Sydney, AUS.
Department of Clinical Governance, Eucalyptus, Sydney, AUS.
Cureus. 2024 Dec 12;16(12):e75603. doi: 10.7759/cureus.75603. eCollection 2024 Dec.
Digital modalities have been demonstrated to improve access and adherence to various chronic care services by mitigating geographical, temporal, and psychological barriers to ongoing multidisciplinary consultations, which such diseases necessitate. The net utility of medication-supported digital weight-loss services (DWLSs) has been intensely debated over the past few years due to their rapid uptake against the backdrop of the obesity epidemic. However, research on these services in real-world settings is scarce. Patients of a large multinational DWLS were emailed a four-question survey, soliciting their reasons for using the service instead of face-to-face (F2F) alternatives. Responses were collected from 1,283 patients, including 481 from the United Kingdom, 428 from Germany, and 374 from Australia. Personal discomfort in discussing weight loss in F2F settings was the most common reason for subscribing to the Eucalyptus DWLS across the full cohort ( = 557, 43.41%), followed by the modality's flexibility ( = 441, 34.37%), patient inability to access comprehensive obesity care through a local general practitioner (GP) ( = 435, 33.90%), and marketing or brand awareness ( = 358, 27.90%). Several significant differences were observed between country, gender, ethnicity, and regular GP status across each of the subscription reasons. This study contributed another important layer to the emerging literature on DWLSs by generating preliminary quantitative evidence of their benefits to obesity care access. However, the findings also indicated that a certain number of patients may be subscribing to such services simply to access weight-loss medications rather than multidisciplinary care. To derive clearer conclusions about this concern, follow-up studies should aim to analyze health coaching engagement markers across a range of service providers.
数字模式已被证明可通过减轻持续多学科会诊的地理、时间和心理障碍，来改善对各种慢性病护理服务的获取和依从性，而这些疾病需要这种多学科会诊。在肥胖症流行的背景下，药物支持的数字减肥服务（DWLS）因其迅速普及，在过去几年中受到了激烈辩论。然而，在现实环境中对这些服务的研究却很少。一家大型跨国DWLS的患者收到了一份包含四个问题的电子邮件调查问卷，询问他们选择使用该服务而非面对面（F2F）替代方式的原因。共收集到1283名患者的回复，其中包括来自英国的481名、德国的428名和澳大利亚的374名。在整个队列中，在面对面环境中讨论减肥时的个人不适感是订阅尤加利ptus DWLS最常见的原因（n = 557，43.41%），其次是该模式的灵活性（n = 441，34.37%）、患者无法通过当地全科医生（GP）获得全面的肥胖症护理（n = 435，33.90%）以及营销或品牌认知度（n = 358，27.90%）。在每个订阅原因方面，观察到国家、性别、种族和是否有固定全科医生之间存在若干显著差异。本研究通过生成关于DWLS对肥胖症护理获取益处的初步定量证据，为关于DWLS的新兴文献增添了重要的一层。然而，研究结果还表明，一定数量的患者可能只是为了获取减肥药物而订阅此类服务，而非多学科护理。为了就这一问题得出更明确的结论，后续研究应旨在分析一系列服务提供商的健康指导参与指标。
