Periodic health examination, 1999 update:
1. Detection, prevention and treatment of obesity

Table 5: Studies of the effectiveness of nutritional counselling or behavioural therapy for obesity
Study	No. of patients (no.  of women)		Length of follow-up	Patients lost to follow-up	Intervention groups	Mean baseline weight or BMI	Mean weight loss/gain at follow-up, kg	Comments
Randomized controlled trials
Trials of Hypertension Prevention78	2382	(NA)	36 mo	98.1%–99.3% completed trial	A: Counselling B: Sodium restriction C: Counselling + sodium restriction (D: Control)	NA	A: -0.2 B: +1.7 C: -–0.3 D: +1.8	–
Hakala79	52	(42)	5 yr	–	A: Counselling at rehabilitation centre B: Individual counselling	A: Men 104.0 kg; women 121.9 kg B: Men 104.3 kg; women 120.2 kg	A: Men +0.3; women -6.8 B: Men +0.5; women +0.2	–
Stamler et al80	189	(69)	4 yr	8	A: Counselling + stop antihypertensive drugs B: Stop antihypertensive drugs (C: Control)	A: 77.6 kg B: 76.7 kg C: 77.4 kg	A: -1.8 B: +2.0 C: +2.0	39% of group A patients maintained 4.5-kg weight loss
Hypertension Prevention Trial81	841	(292)	3 yr	90%–94%	A: Counselling B: Sodium restriction C: Counselling + sodium restriction (D: Control)	A: 87.4 kg B: 84.2 kg C: 84.1 kg D: 83.4 kg	A: -1.6 B: +0.7 C: -0.1 D: +1.9	–
Elmer et al82	902	(354)	4 yr	85% at 2 yr	Counselling + BT for all patients (randomly assigned to receive 1 of 4 antihypertensive drugs or placebo)	85.1 kg	-2.6	After 4 yr, 70% of patients remained below baseline weight and 34% had at least 4.5-kg weight loss
Prospective cohort studies
Erikkson et al83	222	(0)	5 yr	32	Exercise + counselling	BMI 26.6–27.7	-2.0 to -3.3	–
Jeffery et al84	89	(0)	2 yr	9	Exercise + counselling	100.4 kg	-5.1	–
Kramer et al85	200	(12)	4 yr	48	Exercise + counselling	101.1 kg	-2.8 to -4.0	–
Adams et al86	125	(108)	12–36 mo	83	BT	93.8 kg	NA	33 patients regained weight; 25 sustained weight loss

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