Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Young people (YP) living with excess weight engage poorly with group-based weight management programmes despite them being delivered holistically and offering valuable peer support.

Objective: To evaluate a structured group programme for YP in Complications from Excess Weight (CEW) service.

Methods: 3, 90 min single-sex group sessions were delivered by a health and wellbeing practitioner (HWP) twice weekly for 8 weeks. Community venues facilitated attendance and reduced costs: £717 per group. Interactive delivery techniques were used, icebreaker activities, group discussions and practical activity demonstrations. Motivation, sleep, stress, anxiety, nutrition, and physical activity were discussed using psycho-education techniques and SMART goal setting to facilitate change. Participants completed pre- and post-intervention, WHO-5 Wellbeing Index, a five-item questionnaire assessing mood, energy, and interest over the past two weeks. Scale 0 to 25 higher scores show better wellbeing. They also completed an Exercise Confidence Scale, measuring self-efficacy related to physical activity.

Results: 12 CYP (6 female; mean age 15 yrs (13–17) mean BMI Z score 3.6, enrolled out of 50 eligible YP (23 female; mean age 17 yrs (13-19) Z score 3.6. BMI remained static in both groups. 10 YP completed all/some the sessions. WHO-5 scores improved in 90%, increasing +1 to +6 points; one declined (–1 point). The two partial completers improved by +3 and +4 points. These changes exceeded the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) in previously published data (Topp et al 2015). Exercise confidence increased in all YP completing the groups. All completers finished 12 months in CEW, compared to 24% of YP not participating in groups.

Discussion: This pilot shows that a structured, group-based intervention is deliverable in this challenging population, improves wellbeing and physical activity confidence in YP living with excess weight. A single HWP with small groups is a holistic low-cost model, novel within CEW. These findings support the value of HWP group work, and warrant further evaluation of the impact on BMI and future scalability.ReferenceTopp, C. W., Østergaard, S. D., Søndergaard, S., & Bech, P. (2015). WHO-5 Well-Being Index: a systematic review of the literature. Psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 84(3), 167–176. https://doi.org/10.1159/000376585